The Chinese government has built up the world’s largest known online disinformation operation and is using it to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses—at times threatening its targets with violence, a CNN review of court documents and public disclosures by social media companies has found.

The onslaught of attacks – often of a vile and deeply personal nature – is part of a well-organized, increasingly brazen Chinese government intimidation campaign targeting people in the United States, documents show.

The US State Department says the tactics are part of a broader multi-billion-dollar effort to shape the world’s information environment and silence critics of Beijing that has expanded under President Xi Jinping. On Wednesday, President Biden is due to meet Xi at a summit in San Francisco.

Victims face a barrage of tens of thousands of social media posts that call them traitors, dogs, and racist and homophobic slurs. They say it’s all part of an effort to drive them into a state of constant fear and paranoia.

  • theneverfox@pawb.social
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    1 year ago

    Those are idiots, they’re fed up with the horrors of capitalism, like the ideals of communism, and don’t understand that popularly understood “communism” was more authoritarianism than anything else. They believe the assertion is that the two options are brutal capitalism or an authoritarian monstrosity where everyone quotes Marx and Lenin

    If you judge an idea by the understanding of the dumbest supporters, they’ll all seem pretty stupid

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Yes, communism has failed in many respects so far.* The reasons for that are complex, include active sabotage by anti-communist states, but anyone who doesn’t genuinely and critically reflect it’s failures is (probably) doomed to repeat those mistakes.

      This is the part I was replying to. A big part of the supporters aren’t critically reflecting its failures, which doesn’t make me very optimistic.