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.
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.
People won’t care until an 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?
Pro Palestine opinions get you banned, or de-prioritized on Facebook.
Pro Luigi content gets you a ban on all major US social media.
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.
I dunno, you have a favorite pickup truck. I have a hard time believing you’re on the left.
Ya know, Pick Up Trucks aren’t inherently evil (though I’d argue many current designs are rather destructive in several ways), and there’s, like, lefty farmers, contractors, non-city people, etc. I think policing what people are allowed to like will get us nowhere.
Who is policing? I’m just saying you’re a random entity on the internet who also fanboys over a low visibility, polluting, death machine. Then you go on about how you’re actually pretty far left…could easily be a big old case of the lady doth protest too much (akin to the protonmail guy walking back his maga nature with “I’m left on some issues, right on others”).
All I said is I don’t buy this facade you have.
You are policing, that was my point.
Liking the concept of a small, utilitarian pick up doesn’t make you right wing. Liking big pick ups might make you a bit misguided in my eyes, but still doesn’t mean you can’t be on the political left.
I am vegan, and could very easily make arguments why you are unethical and aren’t “properly” left wing if you aren’t. I just don’t think that it’s productive, and that you can’t nail down a person’s whole world view over some general issue like this.
The Toyota Hilux is the People’s Truck!
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