China is behind the largest known covert propaganda operation ever identified on Facebook and Instagram, according to a new report by security researchers at Meta.
Meta on Tuesday outed the authors of a four-year long influence campaign dubbed “Spamouflage Dragon,” which first appeared in 2019 to spread propaganda about Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. Since then, the campaign has focused on spreading disinformation about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, attacking dissidents and critics abroad, criticizing the United States, and attempting to sow division during the 2022 midterm elections.
For years, researchers have speculated that the voluminous Spamouflage Dragon posts were connected to the Chinese government but have been unable to publicly prove a link until now. The link comes courtesy of overlapping content found in both Meta’s report and charges filed against Chinese intelligence operatives back in spring.
The possible origins should be discussed. By experts. What kind of discussion are you looking for? I’m not a bioweapons expert. Are you? What possible conclusion can we come to that actual experts might not have considered?
I just see this idea that everyone’s viewpoint is equivalently valid everywhere and it drives me crazy. This is a scientific question. Real experts study this stuff their entire lives. The one guy with a Ph.D. in Microbiology has an opinion that’s worth more than a million random idiots with a keyboard and internet. Maybe instead of coming to our own conclusions, we listen.
Of course. Again, I just don’t understand the weird polarizing effect even bringing it up causes. By your own reasoning there would be almost nothing most of us average people should even talk about. I find that highly questionable as a blanket statement. We can certainly talk about what we think the experts should be considering without making our own conclusions about it.
Edit: Just to clarify, you mentioned bioweapons. I haven’t heard anything to support that. I just wanted to be clear. I’m not promoting any extreme theories or indeed any theory.
You totally misunderstood what I suggested. Your statement that we can’t discuss anything proves it.
There are a myriad of things we can discuss. Politics, religion, whether Kirk or Picard was better. None of these are provably right or wrong. However, if someone was dispensing medical advice or legal advice, I would hope you’d talk to a real expert. This is the same. I’m not qualified to determine what is right in regards to Covid’s origin so I listen to the consensus of experts.
But can we talk about climate change? Because we sure do. We talk about complicated economics topics, social issues, human biology… I just don’t see why the line is drawn at where Covid might have originated.
No. We can’t talk about whether climate change is real. There’s an overwhelming amount of evidence proving it’s happening. Where do we draw the line in your world? Do you suffer all the fools who don’t believe in gravity too? How about geocentrism? Flat earthers?
There’s no line at Covid. I’m saying there should be a line at hard sciences and questions that are verifiable. We can discuss whether gravity exists but it’s just wasted breath if neither one of us knows all that much about gravity.
Fair enough. Climate change was a bad example. Maybe I could have said something like aliens. I’m far from an expert on anything to do with anything related to aliens, but I’m willing to recognize that it’s an open question. Similarly, I’m not really saying we should imagine we have the answer with Covid, I just don’t think there’s anything wrong with recognizing that it’s an open question. In one of my first comments in this thread in fact (I have apparently been talking to multiple people and not always realizing they’re different…), I stated up front that I doubt we’ll ever have an answer. I suppose the point has been belabored quite a bit at this point. I appreciate your insights and that you took the time to share them without getting too… um… Reddity?