Japan wastewater release sparks misinformation and backlash in China
Japan's release of wastewater has sparked a wave of misinformation in China about nuclear contamination in the Pacific Ocean, with viral posts promoting wild theories that lack scientific backing.
In China, state-linked outlets have drawn links to the fictional monster Godzilla, promoted a campy song decrying Japan for polluting the Pacific and fish merchants were pelted with comments doubting the safety of their products. Animations falsely showing nuclear material seeping into the Pacific have also gone viral.
The release of treated radioactive water from Fukushima prompted a swift and angry response from Chinese authorities, who announced a ban on all seafood imports from Japan.
Several videos on social media show Chinese callers dialling the numbers of Japanese businesses and institutions, then shouting into the phone, “Why do you release nuclear polluted water to the ocean?”
Many social media users have gone a step further by advocating a broader boycott of Japanese products. On Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, users have circulated lists of Japanese brands ranging from cosmetics to food and beverages, and urged people not to buy their products.
The few voices trying to explain the science behind the discharge have been censored and scrubbed from social media.
Chinese museums use digital avatars to enhance cultural experience
Leading museums worldwide are experimenting with augmented reality and virtual reality technologies to create new experiences for audiences to engage with art and culture.
In collaboration with top artificial intelligence (AI) companies such as Baidu and Tencent, Chinese museums have introduced digital humans created by mixed reality technology to become tour guides and ambassadors of Chinese tradition.
In addition to museums, digital humans can help bring historical figures to life. In 2022, the Zhonghua Book Company launched a virtual avatar of Su Shi, an acclaimed Chinese poet and statesman. The creation of the avatar was enabled by the machine learning of 7 billion Chinese characters of historical texts and more than 100 paintings and images depicting Su Shi in the past 900 years or so.
Meta removes thousands of Facebook accounts linked to Chinese influence campaign
Nearly 9,000 Facebook accounts have been removed by parent company Meta, in order to disrupt the Chinese “Spamouflage” foreign influence campaign.
According to Meta, users in the UK, US, Australia and elsewhere have been targeted across over 50 platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit and many more. Having been initially discovered and blocked in 2019, the campaign has partially shifted to other platforms.
The Chinese campaign allegedly generated a network to spread positive commentary on China’s law enforcement while criticising western foreign policies and claimed that the US was “hiding the truth” on the origins of Covid-19.
Although many accounts and platforms are being used, Meta claims the operation has “consistently struggled to reach beyond its own (fake) echo chamber”. They stated that many comments on the posts came from Spamouflage accounts which were trying to “make it look like they were more popular than they were”.
According to the company, Spamouflage has been the seventh such campaign that they have removed in the last six years, including four over the last year.
Threads adding new features, will it be enough?
Threads, Meta's competitor to X, is testing keyword search for posts in Australia/New Zealand.
Search will allow scanning posts for specific keywords beyond just usernames, bringing the functionality into closer alignment with Instagram's search functionality as well as X.
This adds to recent Threads features like following feeds and web access. When Threads first launched, it came with very limited features.
As Threads continues to add features, questions remain as to whether it will be able to challenge X, as its userbase dwindled rapidly after a much-hyped launch.
Instagram swiftly blocks regular Taylors, highlighting a support divide
Many accounts named "Taylor" were mysteriously blocked by Instagram last week.
Some speculated it was to protect Taylor Swift, though her team didn't comment. Instagram confirmed accounts were wrongly blocked for policy violations and restored them.
However, some feel that celebrities, like Swift, get “white-glove service” to protect them while regular users struggle with opaque automated systems.
The disparity highlights Instagram's difficulty to evenly moderate at scale, frustrating normal users, with concerns that even paid verification services won't solve the accountability problem underlying support inequality, especially as Meta and other firms come increasingly to rely on artificial intelligence to solve customer issues.
