China uses online celebrities to carry out publicity on YouTube to shape global public opinion.

(Reuters file photo)

[Compilation of Wei Guojin/Taipei Report] Fergus Ryan, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), warned that the CCP is using online celebrities to promote China on YouTube and shape issues that may interfere with Beijing's strategic goals. Global political discourse.

He urged YouTube to deal with the loopholes of the abuse of the platform. If the relevant Internet celebrities are guerrillas of the CCP in the field of international public opinion, YouTube should not provide them with arms.

Lane wrote in Nihon Keizai Shimbun that if you browse the Chinese content on YouTube, you will think that China's "Great Firewall" has collapsed.

Chinese Internet celebrity Li Ziqi has 17.2 million subscribers to her channel. The top three Chinese channels in terms of subscriptions on this platform are not People’s Daily, CCTV and other party-state media, but Internet celebrities. Following Li Ziqi is “Office Ono” 12 million people and 9.55 million subscribers of "Dianxi Little Brother".

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Chen Junting, vice president of Google Greater China, pointed out that there are more than 100 YouTube China channel accounts with 1 million subscribers.

The State Administration of Radio and Television of China reported that YouTube has become a new "blue ocean" for international communication. "On the YouTube platform, the dissemination effect of Chinese short videos exceeds that of other program types"; 169 million”, of which Internet celebrities accounted for 45%.

How is this possible if YouTube is blocked in China?

The answer lies in the fact that the content of Chinese influencers is generated with the help of "Multi-Channel Networks" (MCNs).

MCN operates their accounts and shares advertising revenue.

However, unlike other countries, MCNs in China have a close relationship with the CCP. Some MCNs have party branches, and all MCNs are required by Chinese law to ensure that their internet celebrities adhere to the party’s values ​​and promote the party’s agenda.

Lane said that most of the content of these internet celebrities is apolitical, but evidence shows that the CCP has used the YouTube platform to shape global online political discourse, such as the channels of some Uyghur and other ethnic minority internet celebrities, which are used to confuse Xinjiang human rights violations and oppression.

ASPI reviewed 1,741 short videos recently released by 18 related accounts, and found that more than 11% of the content explicitly or implicitly echoed the party's propaganda.

With unassuming videos featuring local charm, these internet celebrities are seen by Beijing as persuasive conduits for disseminating party-approved messages from Xinjiang, Tibet and elsewhere; apparently they are scrutinized and considered politically reliable , their creations are subject to strict restrictions of self-censorship, private agency oversight of their work, and China's domestic video platform censorship policies before they can be published on YouTube.

Their content fits closely with the CCP's discourse, and their non-exaggerated performance is easier to give people a real impression, and thus achieve results that are difficult for party-state media to achieve.

A communication scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said, “In the field of international public opinion, if the professional media is a regular army, then the self-media and bloggers are guerrillas or militias. fight".

That's a thorny issue for YouTube, the article said, because research has shown that search engine algorithms tend to prioritize new content and channels that are released on a regular basis.

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