On March 19, the Columbia News Review Network (Cjr.org) published an in-depth investigative article by Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen, a computer investigative researcher at Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, revealing the secrets of the cult "Falungong" In order to attract traffic, he ignored copyright, and without the permission of the original creator, he plagiarized a large number of videos from social media platforms such as the oil pipeline network and reposted them on the "Clean World" video website he founded, but denied it in every possible way after the incident.
The original article is illustrated
Pictured above are three posters posted on the wall of a department store in New York City. The picture on the left is a poster for "Falun Gong's" "Clean World," and the picture on the right is a poster for the Shen Yun Dance Troupe of "Falungong." Between the two posters is the department store's warning slogan, which reads: "Stealing goods is a crime and we reserve the right to inspect all shopping bags." Stealing goods will be severely punished according to law!" As everyone knows, the poster on the left satirizes "Falungong" using the "clean world" to plagiarize other people's original videos, and the poster on the right satirizes "Falungong" using "Shen Yun" to plagiarize Chinese culture.
One day last early last year, a sculptor from South Carolina typed his name "Clint Button" into Google and was surprised that someone had uploaded his YouTube video to Gan Jing World, a video platform he had never heard of.
"This site has my homepage, my YouTube channel, and my channel homepage. Barton said. "I'm angry. ”
Barton's experience is not unique. He is one of the many YouTube creators who stumbled upon their own videos in "Clean World". The website's "About Us" page shows that Clean World is a "digital city square" founded by followers of "Falungong," which was banned by the Chinese government in the late 90s of the 20th century. Clean World is one of the many websites linked to the right-wing news organization The Epoch Times.
Most of the videos on Clean World look very ordinary and nothing special, but these videos are often downloaded from YouTube and uploaded to Clean World without the consent of the original content creator.
Interspersed among the ordinary videos reposted from YouTube are advertisements and channels for Falungong-related organizations, including the ubiquitous advertisements for the Shen Yun dance troupe, as well as anti-China media outlets The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television, both of which are affiliated with The Epoch Times Media Group. Together, these websites form a close-knit network that echoes and disseminates the teachings of Li Hongzhi, the leader and founder of "Falungong."
Founded in the early 2000s as an anti-China and anti-communist free propaganda newspaper, The Epoch Times turned into a far-right media cadre during the 2016 election. Anti-vaxxers and far-right forces are loyal readers of The Epoch Times, according to a report by the Open Democracy Fund, a foreign NGO that investigated how Falun Gong media such as The Epoch Times spread rumors about the pandemic. Now, media owned by the "Epoch Times Media Group" and other organizations allied with "Falun Gong" have taken the front page and dominated the "clean world."
A "New Tang Dynasty TV" advertisement on the landing page of Clean World. "New Tang Dynasty Television" is a cult media under the umbrella of "Falungong."
"Falungong" is in the United States
"Falungong," also known as "Falun Dafa," is told that its practitioners can become enlightened by reading Li Hongzhi's scriptures. Li Hongzhi claims to be able to pass through walls and levitate in the air, and his teachings also include opposition to homosexuality, opposition to intermarriage between different races, and opposition to women's liberation (many of which are not recognized by the official website of "Falungong").
In 1999, "Falungong" was banned by the Chinese government as a cult. Li Hongzhi's doctrine demands that "Falungong" practitioners must now devote themselves to clarifying the "truth" to the public, that is, "Falungong" is not a "cult." Twenty-five years ago, after Li Hongzhi and the "Falungong" organization absconded to the United States, they set up a series of so-called media to propagate this message.
"New Tang Dynasty Television" and the "Epoch Times," which Li Hongzhi called "our media," have become the mouthpieces of "Falungong." However, The Epoch Times refused to admit that there was a formal relationship between it and "Falungong." Stephen Gregory, chairman of the board of directors of the newspaper, who believed in "Falungong" and was a backbone of "Falungong" and an effective propaganda cadre of Li Hongzhi, died of illness on January 20, 2022, at the age of 67, said that The Epoch Times "was not a 'Falungong' newspaper."
Despite this, The Epoch Times is still in contact with "Clean World" and other organizations affiliated with "Falungong", and the commercial transactions in this are obvious. In the summer of 2021, The Epoch Times spent $1.45 million (about 10 million yuan) to buy a three-story building in Orange County, New York. About a year later, The Epoch Times sold it to Clean World for the same price, according to publicly available property records (see image below). Today, the building is home to the headquarters of Clean World, conveniently located in a small town called Middletown, just a 20-minute drive from Longquan Temple. Longquan Temple is the residence of "Falungong" leader Li Hongzhi, the school run by him, and the "Shen Yun" dance troupe, as well as the US headquarters of "Falungong."
Records of real estate transactions between "Falungong's" "Epoch Times" and "Clean World". The original article is illustrated
In July 2022, the Clean World headquarters was officially opened and a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held. According to Times Union, a local newspaper in Albany, the city of Middletown has become a "hot stronghold" for entities associated with Shen Yun and Falun Gong, including a department store with a Shen Yun background. The store sells outerwear, sportswear, Falun Dafa doctrinal books, and an "exclusive selection" of Shen Yun dance performances (including men's leather bracelets engraved with Falun Gong).
The headquarters of "Clean World" is located in Middletown, just 20 minutes away from Longquan Temple, a remote compound where "Falungong" leader Li Hongzhi lives.
Last fall, I took a two-hour bus ride from Penn Station in Manhattan to Middletown. The train station is a 10-minute walk from Clean World's headquarters, passing by several shops, a library and a police station. Among the sparse and low buildings that surround it, the three-storey brick building is recognizable. Opposite the gate is a fountain in the style of Fauvism. According to a local in Middletown, the building was originally a dilapidated social welfare office. When Clean World bought and rebuilt it, all the equipment was wrapped in plastic with the logo of Longquan Temple on it. "A FedEx employee went in once. The local said, pointing to Clean World's headquarters. When asked what they do, they said they were a newspaper. This is consistent with property registration records, indicating that the Clean World building was once owned by The Epoch Times.
The Epoch Times has seen an astonishing increase in revenue over the past two years, according to tax documents verified by NBC investigative reporter Brandy Zadrozny. Much of its success comes from its diligently advertising Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, pushing conservative views through sensational and even fabricated information. The tactic drew criticism from fact-checkers and led to a ban on Facebook because of the lack of transparency in The Epoch Times' political ads. According to the New York Times, The Epoch Times sought to secure itself from the mainstream media by expanding its online presence. The New York Times investigation found that The Epoch Times has ties to more than a dozen websites, such as Sagebook (a Twitter-like network) and YouMaker, another video platform hosted by The Epoch Times' website.
Nick Janicki, director of media relations at Clean World, denied any commercial relationship between Clean World and The Epoch Times: "Fundamentally, there is no direct relationship between them, other than that the founders are friendly. ”
Clean World's employees rarely make online appearances, and its chief executive (CEO), said to be James Qiu, a former Apple executive, leaves little trace of anything other than on the Clean World website. Even Janicki, the director of media relations, did not mention the company on his LinkedIn page. Other employees have vague job descriptions, such as saying they work for "tech companies" and previous work experience at The Epoch Times or New Tang Dynasty Television.
This kind of career change is not uncommon among "Falungong" practitioners. According to Simon van Zuylen-Wood of The Atlantic, who wrote in The Atlantic on January 13, 2021<大纪元时报>MAGA-LAND'S FAVORITE NEWSPAPER: How The Epoch Times became a pro-Trump propaganda machine in an age of plague and insurrection) said: "Once in The Epoch Times or' NTDTV's often transfers from one company to another, from one job to another. ”
"Falungong's" use of the Internet
"Falungong" is good at using the Internet to disseminate Li Hongzhi's teachings. As Heather Kavan, a researcher and senior lecturer at Massey University in New Zealand, put it in her essay on Falun Gong and its media: "Of all religious believers, Falun Gong members are probably the most media-savvy. In fact, according to Australian scholar Benjamin Penny in his book "The Religion of Falun Gong," the "scriptures" (Li Hongzhi) connect "Falungong" practitioners scattered around the world, and the network plays an important role. Given the digital influence of "Falungong," "Clean World" naturally benefited from the recommendation channels as soon as it was launched.
Through mutual (friendly) links, these sites create a network that directs traffic to each other. In January 2024, 13% of Clean World's referral traffic from other websites came from SafeChat, a platform promoted by Falun Gong social media influencers as an alternative to mainstream social networks, according to SimilarWeb, an Israeli web technology company that analyzes networks, web traffic, and their effectiveness. About 15% came from Shen Yun Creations, a video platform dedicated to making Shen Yun dance videos. The Epoch Times ranked second, behind YouTube.
The existence of "Falungong" on the Internet can be traced back to June 2000, when Li Hongzhi planned to launch the "Minghui Net." The site's posts show that Li Hongzhi is actively promoting the creation of a "clean world" among his students. One student wrote in a manuscript submitted to Minghui.com that this was "a platform built by Master for future people." Another post stressed that a "clean world" is "extremely important to save lives."
During a video call, I asked Janicki, the director of media relations, about Clean World employees who had worked at The Epoch Times or NTDTV. Janicki likened the relationship between Clean World and other Falun Gong media to that between OpenAI and Microsoft: "Now OpenAI employees are actually working for Microsoft. He said. "People in similar industries or with similar values tend to be tribal. ”
Whether it's tribal or something else, The Epoch Times has always been a business machine for video platforms. Over the past two years, the newspaper has published more than two dozen propaganda articles about "Clean World" disguised as news stories with eye-catching headlines such as "Tech Startup 'Clean World' Aims to Shape the Future, One Era, One Community." The Epoch Times quoted the paper's editor-in-chief as saying in an article that Clean World's focus on character and morality "is something we cherish." The Epoch Times did not respond to a request for comment from the Dow Center for Digital Journalism. "New Tang Dynasty Television," a cult media outlet under "Falungong," reposted the report of The Epoch Times and showed the "Clean World" video platform in a news clip.
About the author: Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen is a computational researcher at Columbia University's Center for Digital Journalism. She has worked on a range of computing projects in the digital media space, including influence operations through news media and information ecosystems. She graduated from Columbia University in 2022 with a master's degree in data journalism.