
Twitter is displaying China-made ads attacking Hong Kong protesters - OrwellianChild
https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/18/twitter-china-ads-attack-hong-kong-protesters
======
_bxg1
"Here's the question: a bunch of young people in Hong Kong are standing up to
their government, at terrific personal risk, to fight for basic human rights.
Will a bunch of Twitter employees, at far less risk, stand up to their CEO and
refuse to be used as a weapon against them?"

If anyone here works at Twitter, please, stand up for what's right.

~~~
Leary
Does anyone with knowledge of Twitter's terms of service know which rules are
being broken?

~~~
shakna
I would expect a few from the Rules [0] _could_ apply. Depends a bit on
exactly how they're phrasing things.

> You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on
> the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender,
> gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease

> You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other
> people to do so.

> You may not use Twitter’s services in a manner intended to artificially
> amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or
> disrupts people’s experience on Twitter.

[0] [https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-
rules](https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules)

------
guerrilla
This reminds me (in kind, not degree) of how the Yellow Vests were treated by
the French state and corporate media. They were literally labeled "breakers"
(as in vandals) across the board, the word "violence" was incessantly repeated
in as many contexts as possible surrounding protest days, video of blatant
human rights violations would often be ignored in coverage while vandalism or
looting replayed nearly non-stop, etc.

~~~
sidibe
I dont even think it's similar in kind. Even during the violence everyone,
even Macron and French state media gave lip service to their grievances and
went to great lengths to at least pretend to sympathize while China is
hostilely mischaracterizing HK protestors and encouraging mainlanders to hate.

~~~
coldtea
> _Even during the violence everyone, even Macron and French state media gave
> lip service to their grievances and went to great lengths to at least
> pretend to sympathize_

The SWAT police had hit an eldery woman badly, and Macron said to the press "I
hope this teaches her a lesson".

I think that's enough of the sympathising and faux-grievances...

------
07d046
You might as well just read the Twitter thread that the article links to
[https://twitter.com/pinboard/status/1162711159000055808](https://twitter.com/pinboard/status/1162711159000055808)

~~~
jialutu
Scrolling through the twitter message, there is a link to this quora article,
makes an enlightening read:

[https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-specific-examples-of-
medi...](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-specific-examples-of-media-bias-
in-reporting-Hong-Kong-ongoing-unrest/answer/Gordon-
Hsu-1?ch=3&share=0d82ad1b&srid=uYmGw)

~~~
Semaphor
This is downvoted. Can someone explain why? That would be much more helpful
for debunking the link (if it can be debunked).

~~~
07d046
I'm not sure where the Quora link comes from, and it's a bad answer because it
parrots the claim that there were hundreds of thousands at a static rally at a
venue than doesn't hold more than about 20,000.

------
rm--rf
It's interesting to watch the comments for this article on endgadget. As of
rn, there are 17 comments from 9 accounts. 3 accounts are pro-china, one of
which has 7 comments/replys in that thread, and the activity for all three is
solely within the comments of this article, which also has multiple 'leader'
(high usage) accounts all of which have commented in support of the
protesters.

------
markonen
A relatively simple way of (partially) dealing with this would be to just
completely disable ads for specific hashtags.

It would sidestep a lot of the issues around banning a specific (powerful)
advertiser.

------
notaimbot
I really hope ppl get to see both sides of what goes on in HK, not that I
don't support the HK protesters but how the western media portrays the
protests is extremely biased.

------
aembleton
Clicking the link forwards me to
[https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=3_...](https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=3_cc-
session_645de847-53f1-4ec2-a1ab-c4e2f15a90f8)

I guess that would then redirect me to the article but I block that domain at
the dns level.

------
wiggler00m
I quit Facebook a while ago, but recently have been increasingly frustrated by
Twitter's advertising, promoted tweets, and curation. I'm done. Goodbye
Twitter.

------
1023bytes
For extra context, the author of the quoted tweet wrote this blogpost a few
days ago:
[https://idlewords.com/2019/08/a_walk_in_hong_kong.htm](https://idlewords.com/2019/08/a_walk_in_hong_kong.htm)

Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20712762](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20712762)

------
ajxs
In my eyes this is particularly damning in light of their upper management's
milquetoast, flaccid response to recent allegations of political bias. This is
the same company that would have us believe that they are responsible and
morally righteous enough to wield the enormous power it has without requiring
any form of regulation or government intervention. I commend Tim Pool for how
aggressive yet fair and level-headed his interview with Vijaya Gadde and Jack
Dorsey on the Joe Rogan show was. Vijaya Gadde left an incredibly bad
impression on me from that interview. Striking me as incredibly duplicitous,
disingenuous and dishonest. Jack Dorsey came off looking like a moron. We've
seen this same issue with Google recently as well. Both of these companies are
happy to pay lip service to moral stances against the Trump administration,
presumably on the basis of moral outrage against nationalism. But then they
prove with their actions that they are more than willing to assist the Chinese
government in cracking down on the civil liberties of their own citizens.

------
decoyworker
Why is there such a disconnect between the tech elite and the generally well-
intentioned and helpful people of this site? What happens between fighting to
make your way in the tech world and becoming a cynical fuck-the-world jerk
like Dorsey, Thiel, or Zuck?

Is it really that hard to benefit humanity and do the right thing?

------
katakuchi
Will someone please tell me what the purpose is of this article being
published? Is it to criticize the Chinese government for producing Fake News?
Is it to blame Twitter for it's lack of activism to stand for the free folk of
Hong Kong? I'm guessing there's more than one side of this story..

Media will always be used as a tool to combat other media in order to sway
public opinion. Why are we not constantly talking about Tibet anymore or
police brutality and #BlackLivesMatter in the US? There seems to be a
different motive, and for the average reader that consumes media, it becomes
increasingly harder to form a coherent self-thought opinion by themselves and
reach out of this echo chamber.

It seems like every article I read about HongKong in -Europe & the US- is
amped up on anti-Chinese sentiment whilst a large part of the people that
demonstrate are doing so because of dissatisfaction on living conditions and
purchasing power. They live in a city with wild inequality, and they could
also care less about economic disruption and incurred costs by the
aviation/hospitality sector. It seems to me they're just "pissed and want
things to change". Fueled by the international media-attention. However
blatantly simplistic that might sound.

~~~
Nasrudith
That is an incredibly stupid accusation and you should be ashamed of yourself
for even thinking it. Listen to yourself - the whole fucking point is human
rights to not be snatched away in the middle of the night to show trials!
Purchasing power is a fucking stupid thing to accuse as their real motive as
if they wanted to change that they could move onto the mainland.

The point is how China has persistently tried to delegitimize it doing things
like disrupting /overseas/ protests. That isn't normal and shame on all who
try to normalize it.

~~~
katakuchi
I'm not quite sure if I should answer to your reply, as it seems you've wrote
it in quite an angry spur of the moment. Did you perhaps take the time to read
my whole post? Or was the last alinea enough to make you drop your panties and
throw insults and swears around?

The spokesmen of protesters are demanding the extradition law to be upheaved
indefinitely and Carrie Lam to be dismissed, one of which has happened
already. Four months back there was absolutely no traction for any massive
protest like this, not to mention the flares of violence. Even though this law
has been in the making for years and published in March of this year. Can you
think of any other legitimate reason the overall population is demonstrating
so fervently other than dissatisfaction about the way their current government
is running their city into the ground?

You speak of moving onto the mainland as a solution to purchasing power but I
don't think you have any idea what it means to uproot your existence in a city
which you consider your home. Especially when you're living from paycheck to
paycheck and can barely afford the housing anymore. It's not as stupid to the
majority of the inhabitants working in the service sector in Hong Kong and the
fact that you see this as an 'accusation' to protest instead of a right to
demonstrate is quite telling.

~~~
Riverheart
"Even though this law has been in the making for years and published in March
of this year. Can you think of any other legitimate reason the overall
population is demonstrating so fervently other than dissatisfaction about the
way their current government is running their city into the ground"

Because it takes time, energy and a sense of urgency to mobilize people to
action even on issues they should be concerned with?

