MCLC: sharing feel-good news about Tibet

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Kevin <kjc83 at cornell.edu>
Subject: sharing feel-good news about Tibet
***********************************************************

An amusing story about a few hunks who enjoy sharing upbeat news on
Twitter about Xinjiang and Tibet.

Kevin

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Source: NYT (7/21/14):
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/world/asia/trending-attractive-people-sha
ring-upbeat-news-about-tibet-.html

It’s Another Perfect Day in Tibet!
By ANDREW JACOBS 

BEIJING — There’s a lot to admire about Tom Hugo, and not just the
washboard abs that are a glaring feature of his Twitter account profile
photo <https://twitter.com/tomhugo148>.

For starters, Tom Hugo seems to be well-versed in Chinese, and he
evidently cares deeply about the Tibetan people, judging from the
profusion of messages he has posted on Twitter in recent months: There are
photographs of Tibetans in “unique exotic dress,” articles showcasing the
Tibetan people’s deep appreciation for China’s governance of the region
and video clips that portray happy Tibetans
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM0z2lpq7Rg&feature=youtu.be&a>
singing and dancing on state-run television.

“Tibetans hail bumper harvest of highland barley,” read the headline
<http://en.tibetol.cn/01/01/201309/t1352474.htm> on one recent posting.

There’s only one problem with Tom Hugo’s Twitter account: It’s fake.

The visage accompanying the account belongs to a Brazilian model
namedFelipe Berto 
<http://www.malemodelscene.net/editorial/felipe-berto-rick-day/>, and
nearly every video, article and photograph the ersatz Tom Hugo tweets
comes via propaganda websites <http://tibet.use.icp100.com/> linked to the
Chinese government.

The ruse is not an isolated one. In recent days, Free Tibet, an advocacy
group based in London, has identified nearly 100 similar sham accounts
whose sole purpose appears to be disseminating upbeat news and treacly
stories about Tibet and Xinjiang, the region in far-western China whose
native Uighurs, like the Tibetans, have bridled under Beijing’s
heavy-handed rule.

The image shows a Brazilian model named Felipe Berto.“When it comes to
Tibet, nothing that China does surprises us, but this appears to be
something new,” said Alistair Currie, the media manager for Free Tibet,
who says the group’s researchers have stumbled upon hundreds of other
Twitter accounts they believe were also created to spread China’s view on
a number of contentious issues. “It’s an insidious effort to change the
message and muddy the waters about Tibet.”

Although there is no direct evidence to link the Chinese government to the
phony accounts, the content and breadth of the effort would suggest the
involvement of a state actor. The subterfuge is not dissimilar to that
carried out by members of China’s so-called Fifty Cent Party, the
government-paid lurkers who earn 0.5 renminbi per posting on Internet
message boards and chat rooms in an attempt to sway public opinion on
issues deemed politically delicate by the Communist Party. “I genuinely
struggle to think of anyone else who would stand to gain from this,” Mr.
Currie said of the fake Twitter accounts.

An employee of Wuzhou Media Corporation, the Beijing company that creates
the websites <http://en.showchina.org/> often featured in such tweets,
said he knew nothing about the bogus accounts. But in an interview, he
suggested that such tactics fit in well with the company’s mission of
producing propaganda tailored to Western audiences. “We use a tone and
style that’s easier for foreigners to accept,” said the employee, who
would give only his surname, Yu. The company, he said, has a staff of
nearly 300 people.

The Foreign Ministry and the State Council Information Office, the
government agency that regulates the Internet in China, did not
immediately respond to interview requests on Monday.

The use of fake Twitter accounts would also appear to dovetail with
China’s increasingly sophisticated effort to present the country in a more
flattering light while trying to bring the world around to its point of
view on thorny issues, among them the continuing territorial dispute with
Japan and widespread perception in the West that China restricts religious
freedom and represses ethnic minorities like Tibetans and Uighurs.

In recent years, the government has sprinkled hundreds of college campuses
across the globe with Confucius Institutes and financed overseas newscasts
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/world/africa/chinas-news-media-make-inro
ads-in-africa.html?pagewanted=all> of the national broadcaster CCTV in a
half-dozen languages. In the most recent soft power push, state-owned film
companies have been formed a partnership with Hollywood to produce
blockbusters like “Transformers: Age of Extinction” that feature Chinese
actors.

The Twitter page for Felix James, one of nearly 100 similar sham accounts
identified by Free Tibet, an advocacy group based in London.But when it
comes to leveraging Western social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook
and YouTube — all of which are blocked here — Beijing’s efforts would
appear to be a bit ham-handed. On Twitter, many of the fake accounts
identified by Free Tibet use stock images or headshots found on the sites
of commercial photographers in the United States. Others employ the
likenesses of actors like Erica Durance
<https://twitter.com/AlaynaNewark>, who played Lois Lane in the television
series “Smallville,” or in one case, Syd Barrett
<https://twitter.com/Castleberrypgx/following>, the lead vocalist of Pink
Floyd, who died in 2006. Oddly, many of the Twitter handles, likeOliver
Nina <https://twitter.com/olivernina567>, Felix James
<https://twitter.com/felixjames654> and Philomena Rebecca
<https://twitter.com/philomenarebec>, appear to be created through the
combination of two first names. Nearly all the profile images are those of
Caucasians.

Kirsten Kowalski <http://ddkportraits.com/>, a photographer from suburban
Atlanta, was dismayed to learn that a portrait she had taken of a high
school student ended up asLydia May <https://twitter.com/lydiamay789>, a
woman who, judging from her tweets, was peeved by the Dalai Lama’s visit
<http://www.showchina.us/?p=224> to the United States this year but also
thrilled to share with her followers an article
<http://en.chinaxinjiang.cn/01/01/201407/t20140703_436821.htm> titled
“Xinjiang eyes housing, education for poverty mitigation.”

“It’s not like she’s being used to promote horrible stuff, but it’s still
her likeness and she’s just a teenager,” Ms. Kowalski said by phone. “It’s
kind of bizarre, and frustrating. And it’s also illegal, at least in the
United States.”

Fake accounts on Twitter are not new; some experts estimate that as many
as 9 percent of all Twitter handles are made up, although the company says
the figure is under 5 percent, according to its securities filings. Jim
Prosser, a spokesman for Twitter, said the company works hard to weed out
illegitimate accounts and sometimes takes legal action against those who
abuse its rules. “We have a variety of automated and manual controls we
constantly use to detect, flag and suspend accounts created solely for
spam purposes,” he said in an email.

It’s hard to say whether the counterfeit Twitter accounts that disseminate
pro-Chinese propaganda are having the desired impact. Tom Hugo, the
shirtless wonder, has more than 2,600 followers, but many appear to be
fellow fraudsters who retweet the same material. One recent tweet
<https://twitter.com/tomhugo148/status/438864650050867200>, an article
that described the Dalai Lama as a “chess piece
<http://www.showchina.us/?p=224>” used by the United States to contain
China, was retweeted 6,500 times.

Most of the accounts, however, are more like that of the putative Felix
James <https://twitter.com/felixjames654>, who has just a few dozen
followers and who seems to rarely get retweets of his bland postings about
tourist attractions in Tibet (although perhaps it’s because his profile
photo, a man with cellphone glued to his ear, is a stock advertising image
that can be found on scores of websites, including those selling curtains,
shipping containers and telecommunications software).

In interviews, several genuine Twitter users who follow the fake ones said
they were not entirely surprised to learn they were following pro-China
propagandists. Some, like Scott Eddy <https://twitter.com/MrScottEddy>, a
consultant <http://www.mrscotteddy.com/> who helps entrepreneurs expand
their social media footprint, said they simply follow anyone who agrees to
follow them. “I’m pretty aggressive when it comes to building a fan base,”
Mr. Eddy, an American who lives in Bangkok, said in explaining how he
ended up with 479,000 Twitter followers.

Asked whether he thought the creative minds behind the false pro-China
Twitter accounts were on to something, Mr. Eddy laughed. With so many
followers, he screens out all but the most compelling followers from his
timeline, ensuring that the fraudsters end up tweeting into a black hole.
“I want as big a stage as absolutely possible,” he said, “but that doesn’t
mean I want to read garbage.”