[China Anti-Cult Network December 7, 2021, correspondent: Su Shan] On December 1, the Us "New York Times" published an article "Those cute online cats? They help spread false information (Those Cute Cats Online?) They Help Spread Misinformation), exposing the "Falungong" cult's use of its right-wing media to spread popular cute pet pictures and videos on Internet social media platforms such as Facebook, as bait, to trick online clicks, and then spread all kinds of false information. The Chinese Anti-Cult Network translates below.
Screenshot of a New York Times article
On October 2, Falun Gong's "New Tang Dynasty Television" posted a video on Facebook of a woman rescuing a baby shark stranded on shore, which received 33,000 likes, comments and shares, next to a subscription link to The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times is associated with the "Falungong" organization and is keen to spread anti-China remarks and right-wing conspiracy theories.
Joseph Mercola is an orthopedic surgeon. Some researchers say that Merkora is the main disseminator of false information about the new coronavirus on the Internet, and he often posts about cute pets on Facebook, generating tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of interactions, including "Kittens and Chickens Are Sweet and Sweet Snoozing Together" and "Why Orange Cats Are different from other cats" written by veterinarian Karen Becker.
The right-wing Western Journal, which has published unsubstantiated claims about the benefits of using hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus and spreads lies about fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, has a popular Facebook page, Liftable Animals, which publishes stories about the newspaper's website and stories about golden retrievers and giraffes.
Since the advent of the Internet, videos and moving pictures of cute pets (usually cats) have flourished on the Internet, and many animals have become famous, such as "keyboard cats", "grumpy cats", "tongue-spitting cats" and "rainbow cats".
Disinformation researchers say there is a growing trend: Disinformation peddled online by certain individuals and organizations is increasingly influential.
While animal-related posts don't directly disseminate disinformation, they can attract a large audience that then directs them to UNrelated URLs to spread false information such as alleged electoral fraud, unproven coronavirus therapy, and other fictitious conspiracy theories. Sometimes, when an audience follows a cute pet on Facebook, they are unknowingly labeled as a subscriber to the same post as a subscriber to their misleading post.
Melissa Ryan, chief executive of Card Strategies, a consulting firm that studies disinformation, said this "engagement bait" helps disinformation spreaders increase their page views and make their future user base more prominent. This prominence, she said, can prompt a wider audience to identify with the false or misleading information they provide, and "the strategy is very effective."
Among the organizations that have strongly pursued this (interactive bait) strategy, the first to none is the Epoch Times' parent company, The Epoch Media Group. According to an analysis by The New York Times, In the past year, Epoch Media Group has published videos about cute pets on its 103 Facebook pages and 12,062 posts. These posts, including links to other Epoch Media Group websites, garnered tremendous views. Trending World, one of Epoch's Facebook pages, became facebook's 15th most popular page in the U.S. between July and September, and one of the posts was a souvenir video of a family posing with a seal at a SeaWorld resort that garnered 12 million views.
A video posted last month on the Epoch Times Taiwan edition page showed a close-up of a golden retriever in which a woman tried to pry an apple out of its mouth, but in vain. The video garnered more than 20,000 likes, shares and comments on Facebook.
The Epoch Times Media Group did not respond to a New York Times request for comment.
The cute videos that get viral are usually from Jukin Media and ViralHog (both of which are popular video trading companies on the Internet in the United States). These companies determine which videos are easily shared online and then enter into a licensing agreement with the producer. After acquiring the rights to the videos, Jukin Media and ViralHog sold licenses to other media companies, where they split the profits on the original creators.
Mike Skogmo, jukin Media's senior vice president of marketing and communications, said his company had a licensing agreement with New Tang Dynasty Television, which is part of Falun Gong. In a statement, Skagomer said: "In accordance with guidelines for protecting creators of works in our library, Jukin has licensing agreements with hundreds of publishers around the world, covering the political realm and a range of topics. Asked if the company was evaluating the "interaction bait" that their clips might be used as "interaction bait" to spread false information after the deal was struck, Scogomer said there was no say.
Ryan Bartholomew, founder of ViralHog, said: "Once someone has ordered the original content we provide, what to do with that content is their own business and ViralHog does not support or object to any use and purpose as this is beyond our reach." ”
The use of cute pet videos poses a problem for technology platforms such as Facebook, because the posts about cute pets themselves do not contain false information. When Epoch Times Media Group violated Facebook's political advertising policies, Facebook banned ads and closed hundreds of Epoch Media Group affiliated accounts after determining last year that the accounts violated Facebook's "coordinated counterfeiting" policy.
"We have taken enforcement action against Epoch Times Media Group and its related (Facebook) groups on several occasions." Facebook spokesman Drew Pusateri said. "If they are found to be engaged in deceptive behavior in the future, we will continue to take enforcement action against them."
Facebook did not comment on the strategy of using cute pets to spread false information.
University of Washington researcher Rachel M. Miller, who studies Internet disinformation, said that he would not be able to do so. Rachel E. Moran said it's unclear how often cute videos lead people to accept disinformation, but posting such videos is still a popular tactic because the risk of violating the rules of social media platforms is low.
"Cute pet pictures and cute videos are the basic content of social media and will never conflict with any algorithmic content moderation detection." Moran said. "People still use it every day."