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Information operations directed at Hong Kong

(blog.twitter.com)
1116 points whatok | 1 comments | 19 Aug 19 18:11 UTC | HN request time: 0.228s | source
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throwawaysea ◴[19 Aug 19 20:37 UTC] No.20741570[source]▶
What makes coordinated activity from government entities different from brigading performed in coordinated ways by non-government people with political or activist agendas? Isn’t that also manipulation? Or is it that Twitter just has its own political and economic agenda and their TOS/rules/blog posts are self-justification?
replies(2): >>20743325 #>>20744227 #
1. woutr_be ◴[20 Aug 19 02:15 UTC] No.20743325[source]▶
In my opinion; the main difference here is that the government entities used bots or paid people to post propaganda. While the pro-democracy non-government camp used their own account to share their views. This I'm okay with.

But a good example on how not to do it is the /r/hongkong subreddit, it's filled with pro-democracy accounts who will delegitimise any posts that goes against the general sentiment. It's impossible to have a constructive discussion there without being marked as a troll, or a pro-china bot. That to me is just the same as spreading propaganda and preventing free speech. That's not ok.