Throughout most of Donald Trump’s presidency, the purveyors of the Russia-collusion hoax wanted Americans to believe that Russian operatives helped Trump capture the White House with the assistance of $100,000 in Facebook ads – in a race in which $2 billion was doled out on advertising.
But apparently, a phony Chinese social media account knew how to play liberals during the pandemic, by encouraging them to protest alleged anti-Asian violence and dismissing the idea that COVID-19 emerged from a lab leak.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, a cybersecurity company called Mandiant and Google researchers learned that “thousands” of accounts on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms were part of a social media network that “called on Americans, specifically New Yorkers, to show up for protests against anti-Asian discrimination and ‘fight back’ against theories that the COVID-19 virus was created in a Chinese lab in Wuhan.”
“The Twitter and Facebook accounts largely pushed #StopAsianHate, a hashtag that liberal politicians adopted in the wake of high-profile street attacks on Asian Americans,” the Free Beacon noted.
In a separate take on the report, The Wall Street Journal noted, “The activity represents the first known example of suspected China-linked actors targeting Americans with the apparent goal of encouraging them to attend real-world demonstrations.”
A Mandiant spokesman told the Journal that the accounts were almost certainly supported by a [Chinese] government sponsor.”
Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter all suspended the accounts involved in the campaign. The companies cited rules that ban fake or secret government-backed accounts.
The Journal also noted the report asserted that the efforts failed, as the protests against the lab-leak theory did not occur.
But, it is obvious that the #StopAsianHate was a success on some level.
For example, The New York Times reported in March that after a white gunman killed eight people, including six Asian women in Atlanta, “hundreds of activists” turned out for a protest march and rally, chanting “Stop Asian hate.”
They did so even though the shooter himself told police that he was not motivated by racial hatred, and that it’s never been shown that bigotry inspired his rampage.
Meanwhile, while the Chinese accounts may not have mobilized protests in New York City, liberals in the media and elected Democrats reacted by widely panning the lab-leak theory as the origin for COVID-19 – primarily because it was promoted by President Donald Trump. In recent months, the theory has gained more traction and plausibility, as the animal-crossover claim remains short on evidence.
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