Summary
Many Americans joining China’s social media platform RedNote are encountering strict censorship uncommon in Western platforms.
One non-binary user had a post asking if the platform welcomed gay people removed within hours.
Posts on LGBTQ+ topics, fitness photos, and sensitive cultural content have been censored, frustrating users unfamiliar with China’s moderation rules.
RedNote is hiring English-language moderators to handle the influx. While some users enjoy cultural exchange, others criticize restrictions.
Analysts see RedNote’s growth among US users as a soft power win for China.
The fuck did they expect going to a Chinese platform
Well the tankies seem to think that China is actually a Utopia that the western governments are hiding from us, so naturally there shouldn’t be any censorship issues lol
People moving to Red Note aren’t tankies and I’ve only heard people who describe what tankies say that tankies think China is a utopia that our governments are hiding from us. Kinda like Ben Shapiro describing what “the left” people say or do.
lemmy.ca has some tankie instances defederated, so it would make sense why you don’t see what tankies are saying
https://lemmy.ca/instancesBut I do agree that people using rednote aren’t tankies.
I wish .ca would list a reason for defederation.
If you checked out those tankie instances or listened to them in your home instance for just a few minutes, you wouldn’t have to ask lol.
.world still federates with .ml and man those guys can have the most braindead takes… and they’re one of the more reasonable tankie instances.
Oh .ca is still with .ml, I go there to laugh every once in a while.
This can help, but it’s reports against instances in general and not specifically from .ca https://gui.fediseer.com/instances/censured
“I’m an American and have a right to free speech, no matter what country the service is hosted in!”
But what if there is no country that “allows” the speech you want to say? I want to call for the beheading of billionaires. I assume you don’t think I should be able to do that?
That’s certainly what certain people on lemmy.world seem to think despite the server being in The Netherlands.
You are assuming TikTokers have any intelligence, morals, principle or talent (or even humanity)
This is an extremely weird take.
On Lemmy it’s not, this place is filled with pseudo-intellectuals with no critical thinking abilities at all. They literally have no idea what a ban like this means. The problem is I can’t tell I’d they’re shills or worse, they really think this is a good thing cuz “le short videos bad”. I’m starting to think that only the worst people from reddit came here.
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Ikr, that’s the whole world, not just TikTok users.
Somehow TikTokers even surpass that (Along with Twitch streamers)
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Who Lemmy.World ??
Anyone who has been using Xitter over the last couple of years has already experienced Chinese style censorship.
Chinese style censorship is more consistent, though. No one is making up rules on the fly.
This is consistent. Anything that makes the racists, fascists, incels, tech bros, and billionaires uncomfortable is blocked.
What makes them uncomfortable could change tomorrow.
Did mentions of Tiananmen Square make China uncomfortable before 1989 or did that change? Did mentions of Winnie the Pooh make China uncomfortable before 2017 or did that change?
I’m not sure what point you were trying to make.
My point was just that Musk has very thin skin.
And Xi doesn’t?
The point was obvious…
Chinese censorship is planned and targeted, with the intent to control and suppress dissent. It works hard to maintain a narrative and prevent excessive and rapid shifts so as to achieve a long term goal of control.
The billionaires running American social media (with a special shout to Musk) are mercurial and subject to the petty whims and feelings of the owner.
So while yes, obviously both change and the heads of the CCP are also occasionally subject to emotional responses, the differences between the two are stark and obvious. So no, “everything technically changes” is not a valid counter to the significant differences in intent and volatility.
Claiming you don’t understand the point they were making is just being intentionally obtuse.
Thank you. It seems it was clear enough for at least one other person.
I’m sure your point was very clear in your head but it may not be obvious to you that other people can’t read your mind. Suggesting that anyone who doesn’t get your opaque point is being obtuse is arrogant and childish.
Do better.
That is a comparatively slow rate of change, don’t you think so?
That was only two representative examples. Do you actually want me to make an exhaustive list of all of the changes that have happened over time to the Chinese censorship regime?
That is a poor defence of censorship.
I’m not trying to defend it, just saying that as bad as Chinese censorship is, Musk is worse.
China censors all literature, film, music, and internet discourse employing advanced technologies and multiple tens of thousands of people while also running the world’s largest prison for journalist. VPNs are blocked. Apps like Signal are blocked. Online gaming for minors is limited to 3 hours per day on weekends and holidays only. People get harassed by police for what they post online. Many go to jail for criticizing the government, spreading pornography or health related sexual content (including anything LGBT), supporting Taiwanese independence, or casting doubt on Chinese folk legends. Then, in addition to that (which I have not even begun to do justice to), all media companies run their own internal censorship regimes so as not to get in trouble with the authorities. And this rolls downhill: you the individual self-censor to not get in trouble with your boss or worse.
You don’t think that’s exactly where the US is heading?
To the contrary… it’s a real concern. That’s why we shouldn’t falsely equivocate the CCP censorship apparatus to the haphazard moderation impulses of a childish social media CEO.
We’ve got a lot more to lose, especially with the long-emerging (and currently accelerating) conflux of state and social media.
For insurance, the pending KOSA bill opens a huge opportunity for future government censorship: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/09/new-kosa-same-as-old-kosa-but-now-with-elons-ignorant-endorsement/
Heading is different from already being there.
Is there a pedant brigade or something?
Yeah… I don’t think you’re the expert on China censorship you present yourself as.
I think you just regurgitated every piece of Cold War propaganda & every rumor about Chinese censorship that you’ve ever heard.
Which of my statements do you disagree with? How would you characterize the state of freedom of speech in the PRC?
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Lol I’m almost permanently shadow banned from youtube for the same reason, only rarely do my comments actually show up, and I can’t even reply to my own comment. The funny thing is I made just one comment to trip their alarm, because everything else I write comments about are usually memes and YTP.
I also saw a fairly well liked reddit mod get banned by the site admins for stating Israel is an ethnostate.
Thn first amendment protects you against censhorship by the government only, so yeah facebook can censor yoyr speech
So if you wanted to talk shit about Israel you could spin up your own lemmy instance and there’s nothing the government or anyone else can do about.
Can the same be said about Mainland Taiwan?
Many Americans joining China’s social media platform RedNote are encountering strict censorship uncommon in Western platforms.
This has nothing to do with the first amendment in the first place.
Being banned from FB however as everything to do with common censorship on western platforms.
Well color me constipated, because no shit.
Some devs in China must be working overtime to create separate infrastructure for the US so that censors aren’t overwhelmed and miss things Chinese people aren’t supposed to see. 😂
Let’s get the vpns ready and use burners! Fuck censorship!
Non-Chinese devices can’t access Douyin even with VPN, though.
Already done I’m sure.
This is why I’m against using Rednote myself. Just try searching tiananmen square in Rednote and you won’t get any results.
Someone here was defending it the other day claiming that China wouldn’t use it for propaganda purposes because politics is banned there.
They didn’t see the problem with that.
Oh, well that makes it completely useless then.
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Are you seriously suggesting that the bloodbathed atrocities committed by the Chinese government on innocent student protestors in Tiananmen Square never happened?
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Now I am quite ready for you to disengage, shut down, and just yell and say I am a crazy person
Do you see a .ml after my name?
And if that’s the “normal response” you’re accustomed to, then maybe other people aren’t the problem.
No, my response is to end this now and to stop engaging in a discussion that is clearly pointless. I’ve said what needed be said on the matter.
People did get killed, but no one died in the Square, and calling it a “massacre” is a stretch. Here are some NSFW/NFSL images and here is a video what actually went on with tank man (who blocked tanks from leaving the square, not entering it).
I think that’s splitting hairs and a purposeful distraction from the point that the Chinese government’s murdered innocent people.
To say- “but it happened near the square, not AT it!” is nothing short of disingenuous.
And for the record, they said the west “made it up”. Misinformation at its finest.
Leaving aside the fact that nobody questions that Roth was detained for 20 hours by the Chinese government and quite possibly bribed or blackmailed.
Quite a few of the people killed were unarmed military & police, which means that at least some of the “peaceful” protesters were not as peaceful as Western media portray them.
Did the Chinese military kill innocent students protestors or not?
Answer the question without splitting hairs and distractions.
Did they, or did they not?
Given that a few hundred people died, I think it’s safe to assume that government agents must have killed at least some nonviolent protesters, yes. I don’t know anyone who’d dispute that.
Here’s an archive of the link from that CBS page, since it’s broken now: https://web.archive.org/web/20090606124946/https://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06/04/world/worldwatch/entry5061564.shtml
It talks about the soldiers shooting people outside Tiananmen Square. This is the event that “the Tiananmen Square Massacre” refers to. The number of people killed ranges from tens to hundreds to thousands, depending on who you ask, plus more wounded, but nobody can deny that there wasn’t a massacre.
this is disgusting. personally I prefer lgbtq related posts be censored by companies like Facebook and Twitter instead.
cisgender is hate speech, y’all
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You can just go on the app and you’ll see it for yourself, they don’t bite.
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There’s lots of posts of people asking opinions about LGBT stuff and the platform has a large lesbian community.
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The app is originally more popular with women and the norm is to assume anonymous users are female, “sis” is considered complementary and a sign of acceptance.
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My Hero Academia is considered cancelled because the manga included a reference to Unit 731, which did some real Nazi shit in WWII.
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Chinese politics and history post-revolution is a sensitive topic and generally avoided. If you’re planning to go there so you can tell them about Tienanmen Square and how their government is evil, don’t bother lol.
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There are a few Western fascists trying to get on there, probably in hopes that the moderators won’t recognize their dogwhistles (things like 1488, groyper, etc). They banned Nick Fuentes before he could post anything because they recognized the name, and I’ve seen posts circulating warning about their keywords. Hopefully the moderators they’re hiring will help nip it in the bud.
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Generally, like, remember that you’re a guest and your experience will probably be fine. I’ve been surprised at both sides being respectful, and people are generally happy to have us. I’m sure there’s parts of the Chinese internet that are much less pleasant but RedBook seems like a pretty amiable cultural crossing point. It’s a unique opportunity to see another perspective without just going out on your own and there’s no telling how long it’ll last.
I am taking lots of notes from all the Chinese spies so that I can become a better Chinese spy for everyone here on Lemmy 🤗
From my experience, it’s a place for lighthearted fun.
I hated using Instagram and Facebook because of the toxic right-wingers always starting shit.
So imagine my surprise when these right-wing instigators actually get banned when I report them on RedNote.
Get wrecked idiots, finally a social app with an actual code of conduct.
This is the irony of it all. People are encountering Chinese censorship and realizing they prefer it over American censorship. XD
Ridiculous. I’ve seen comments removed from tiktok for using the word dumb, but some right wing Russian bot comes along and says the most evil, vile shit you’ve ever seen and you report it and the moderators always just happen to not find anything wrong with it. That’s not ‘American censorship’ that’s bullshit.
“[Describes censorship] … That is not censorship bro.”
I don’t know to tell you.
That’s literally American censorship and you can see the same pattern on all large American social media platforms. Youtube has the gamer to fascist pipeline set up with their recommendation system. Facebook recently did an “about face” which was really just making official their love of fascism. Twitter… is twitter. The capitalist class has always been fine with fascism and the platforms they own reflect that. Language is policed more than fascist rhetoric because advertisers don’t like the language.
Chinese politics and history post-revolution is a sensitive topic and generally avoided. If you’re planning to go there so you can tell them about Tienanmen Square and how their government is evil, don’t bother lol.
Do you think maybe that’s possibly a bad thing?
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I suppose the real question is whether most users will balk at this and move to a new platform, or just accept it.
My bet is that they’ll just accept it.
My bet is that they’ll just accept it.
People won’t care until they or an issue they care about is censored.
It would be interesting to see what the effects are. I’ve heard that TikTok is the only mainstream social media where leftist content isn’t attenuated by the algorithm. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, and if we assume Red Note is similar in that regard, and if you bet right, they’ll keep getting exposed to leftism without corpo platforms being able to stop it. Unless they do another ban. I’m curious whether there would be a point when the TikTok > Red Note users would realize that and refuse to go back to the corpo propaganda machines.
Out of curiosity, what leftist content do you see there that the “western” social media sites won’t allow on their platform?
I don’t think it’s so much that western social media “won’t allow” leftist content, you can certainly post it and share it, but the algorithms aren’t going to do anything to help it gain traction.
Pretty much all of my Facebook friends skew liberal, leftist, even pretty hardcore socialist and communist. They share their memes and post about politics, and I like and interact with that stuff in positive ways. The few political pages I follow myself are pretty much all left leaning causes- environmentalism, pages devoted to voting out Republican candidates in my local elections, LGBTQ rights, atheism, etc. and I actively block, unfollow, and when appropriate report (though of course the reports never seem to go anywhere) any sort of of homo/trans-phobic, racist, bullshit and any misinformation I come across.
I’m just about the furthest right of anyone on my Facebook, and I’m still pretty far left. I have a few hobbies and interests and such that tend to skew right-wing, like hunting, fishing, guns, etc. but I don’t really interact with any pages relating to any of that on Facebook, don’t post about those things, etc. and the way I approach and interact with those sorts of activities is very different than the way most conservatives do.
If you looked at my ads and recommendations though, you’d think I was some kind of truly insane redneck. Gun stuff, weird Christian tradwife quiver-full homesteader shit, very thinly veiled racism, homophobia, etc, muscle cars and big trucks (I think muscle cars are stupid, I do like trucks but not the big lifted monster trucks that it’s always showing me, I think a stock maverick is pretty damn close to perfect)
The only left wing stuff I see is stuff my friends are sharing themselves, and mostly it’s stuff they’ve posted themselves and not shared from anywhere else on Facebook. Their stuff’s mostly not getting taken down, but it’s not getting promoted to any wider audience by the algorithm.
This is hownit works. On algorithm-driven platforms you don’t have to ban anything. You can both allow it, and have it not reach any meaningful audience. It’s brilliant really.
A lot of advertisers pulled out of Facebook, so you get the ones going for the target audience.
I dunno, you have a favorite pickup truck. I have a hard time believing you’re on the left.
Yeah, fuck me for having an opinion on something I frequently find myself needing to use.
No, in an ideal world, a truck shouldnt be anyone’s primary transportation. Privately owned passenger vehicles in general should be a rarity and most people’s needs should be served by public transportation.
However, sometimes you need a truck, they do exist to serve the purpose of moving large or bulky things that you can’t with other vehicles, they’re not just for idiots to waste gas driving getting groceries or for idiots to go play in the mud. And people tend to develop opinions on the tools they use. I have a favorite hammer, I have opinions on computer operating systems, a preferred style of cabinet hinges, and opinions and preferences on countless other things.
And it happens that I like trucks. I don’t own a truck, it’s not a practical vehicle for my everyday needs, but I borrow them frequently from friends and family and rent them on occasion. And the maverick is my preferred truck for when I need one.
Pro Palestine opinions get you banned, or de-prioritized on Facebook.
Pro Luigi content gets you a ban on all major US social media.
Mmmm, I see plenty of people supporting Luigi and not getting banned.
For example: https://www.businessinsider.com/luigi-mangione-content-meta-facebook-instagram-youtube-tiktok-moderation-2025-1?op=1
That is one story running covering the ongoing removal of pro-Mangione content. It was an isolated incident.
Well, the billionaires do want to keep things under control. They know their power is fragile.
There’s a lot of gay people on the app this is strait up lies. Holy shit my eyes are open to this bullshit
Damn, who could’ve seen that circus coming while honking its way over here? Not me.
Mainland Taiwan per usual I see.
I wonder what happens if you post winnie the poo shit.
They have a lot of pooh posts mainly from the ride at Disney there.
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Dude yea I went to the app. I see the posts I was curious about it as well. There are a lot of Winnie the pooh posts you can see. Like go there yourself.
You’re literally parroting bullshit
This is the crux of it. People are so used to getting away with “bravely” parroting Western Cold War propaganda that even the mildest push-back is experienced as a massive affront.
The reason the US is more lax about censorship is that they can afford to because people are so gullible they’ll believe anything they’re told regardless of their own, lying eyes.
I’m sure it’s still exponentially better than censoring all free speech and critical opinion, and only being fed what your government mandates you a need to know.
Go on… ask china how they feel about Tiananmen Square. Better yet, how about you go ahead and show me some material from all those North Korean comedians taking about how incompetent their government is.
Man… It really blows my mind how much lemmy is a microcosm of how shit is in the world.
You .ml folk sure like to come here and sling your shit in .world and pretend that things like free speech is somehow something to shit on, when you know damn well we can’t respond in kind in your house. It’s interesting how you all seem to enjoy the freedom you have here to say dumb shit every day- knowing that you have a safe space to run back to when people call you out.
Remember that.
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“Everything is propaganda except CCP propaganda”
You tankies are fucking wild.
Why even bother talking with y’all? If I prove something you say is wrong, you just switch to something else (and yet you’re always accusing us of whataboutism!) and put words into my mouth that I never said. If you want to let yourself be deceived, I can’t stop you, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
You say you’ve provided direct proof? What proof? Additionally, you haven’t confronted me on anything. I only just came in here to call out your nonsense.
Oh, and you know damn well that I’m not wrong. It’s easy to prove that .ml shuts down any narrative that casts a shadow on their broken-assed ideology. And if you even think to deny this, I’ll have you look at the modlogs as evidence.
Unfortunately though, here you remain, rattling on with your misguided rhetoric- arrogantly positing opinions and seemingly demanding to be taken seriously.
Suffice it to say, lemmy is a microcosm of the real would. It’s plain to see that the communist blathering of .ml is an attempted emulation of the countries they blindly worship. Which in and of itself would be fine. People should be allowed to be as foolish and ignorant as they chose. But the problem lies when they all come here accusing bias and unfair treatment.
Utterly mind-blowing it is! To see so many people that claim to hate America and westernized media spending so much of their time contributing to its success. In contrast…
Consider looking through my comment history. See how many times I’ve wasted my time posting or commenting in a .ml community. See how many times I’ve debated with people there. Then compare that to the overwhelming amount of time you spend here debating with people that will probably never agree with you.
Kind regards!
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all the lulz
Can’t be worse than Reddit.
