Depressing to see someone actively tooting about #gaza respond to one of my posts and denying #Uyghur#forcedlabor. Not the first time I've seen or experienced this.
Though, notably, I've yet to meet an actual #Palestinian who does this. It's nearly always western leftists.
#uyghur on TikTok. The very first video at the top is about how we promised after the Holocaust it would never happen again and now it’s happening Uyghurs. There are videos about “save Uyghurs” and so on. You don’t seem evil or stupid or any other insult, but please consider looking.
Edit: Found a great video on TikTok from an account with 1.5 million followers about testing censorship by China regarding all their dirty laundry including Uyghurs, also among the top results. It’s been up for many weeks now.
With regards to Chinese control/manipulation, I’d like to add that in the course of debate with another person I’ve discovered just today that:
I can’t locate actual evidence from journalists that shows that TikTok skews results at the behest of China or otherwise. “There is no concrete evidence supporting the idea that political ideas shared on TikTok are more progressive or pro-Palestine than what you find on other platforms or that it skews more progressive than the overall population — with nearly 70 percent of voters now supporting a cease-fire in Gaza. It’s unclear how TikTok’s algorithm handles political content. But one of lawmakers’ greatest concerns is that the platform has offered a new avenue for people to virally spread political messages outside of traditional media.”
Topics that China REALLY wants censored are freely available on TikTok. Here’s #uyghur on TikTok - the first result at the top is a video about how the world said “never again” after the Holocaust yet now we let it happen to Uyghurs in China. Here’s a video from an account with 1.5 million followers that tests Chinese censorship by going through all of China’s dirty laundry, including Uyghurs, Tibet and political suppression. It has been up since March 13th, has 187,500 likes, and shows up in the first 10 results (so right near the top). There are 42,700 posts that come up with #uyghur and top results are condemnations of China’s genocide.
Saying China doesn’t commit cyberwarfare or propaganda would be a ridiculous position. We should definitely be paying attention to what stands between the public and facts, although that applies to many more platforms than just TikTok. However, people should know the facts of censorship or skewing (China-mandated or otherwise). Burden of proof is on the accusers, and I can’t find said proof. In the case of censorship, what I can easily find first-hand on TikTok itself is evidence that contradicts the claims about banning Uyghurs, Tibet, etc.
Edit: To those downvoting, why? I’m not asking because I need you to justify disagreeing with me. I want to see the evidence I couldn’t find after spending all afternoon looking for actual proof that China maliciously censors TikTok or disproportionately skews results as is being alleged. I stepped up with evidence, please do the same.
Interview with Cosette Wu, a Taiwanese-American student at Harvard and co-director of the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP. The Coalition is made up of Tibetan, Taiwanese, Uyghur and Hong Kong students working in solidarity toward their collective liberation
Stunning. 34% of the population in Chinese prisons are #Uyghurs, who make up ~1-2% of the population.
China has a top-down strategy to, basically, criminalize an entire ethnic group and, with time, eliminate their unique cultural, religious, and social identity.
Partnering or working with the Chinese government means supporting these genocidal policies. That includes #climate & #environment groups, too.
Amazing to see the #ILO finally taking #Uyghur forced #labor seriously. Knowing what I do about the organization, this is a huge shift and one that, I imagine, only happened due to the dedicated work of academics and activists on this issue.
This piece is arguing that #gaza impacts climate because its harms the "fragile fabric of international cooperation" & makes collective action on climate more difficult due to divisions
This is essentially the same argument used to downplay the #Uyghur#genocide, b/c bringing too much attention to it creates divisions & harms the potential for climate cooperation as it pushes #China away from negotiation
If only calling out all #humanrights abuses was good for climate
It’s a video covering all sorts of forbidden topics in China and tagged with hashtags like #uyghur and #tiananmensquare but the video showed up on people’s “for you” page and engagement/views was in line with most of his other videos. On the other hand, his videos where he brings up other topics like the CIA get outright censored. He uploaded a video about Palestine and tagged one with tags like #freepalestine and then uploaded the same video again without those hashtags and the one with the hashtags has <70k views versus the >930k views of the video without the hashtags.
China is siding with #Europe's right in opposing the new #EU due diligence regulations, which shouldn't be a surprise, as they are natural allies.
If (and its a big if) the law is enforced properly, could have a severe impact on Chinese exports to Europe, including, hopefully, finally dealing with #Uyghur forced labor in #Solar and #CleanEnergy supply chains.
"Urumqi Road" is compiled from footage of thousands of mostly young people who spilled out onto the streets of Shanghai & other #Chinese cities in late Nov 2022 to mourn deaths of a #Uyghur family in #Urumqi, #Xinjiang.
Spoke at this event, about how to counter #China economic coercion, a key reason I believe that #SoutheastAsia countries are wary about speaking out about things like the #Uyghur#humanrights crisis, or the #southchinasea conflict.
But I found it wonderful that the world map pic chosen by the organizers has #Tibet has an independent country, not part of China.
Evidence for persecution and imprisonment of hundreds of older #Uyghur women for #religious crimes.
'"Rachel Harris, professor of ethnomusicology at Soas University of London and co-author of the new report, said the ustaz (urban female leaders who embraced reformist styles of Islam coming from the Middle East in the 1980s) used religion to pursue education and participate in international trade.
"Meanwhile, the büwi (female religious leaders primarily in rural Uyghur communities) held significant power in society, and were responsible for leading birth and death rituals, teaching children and overseeing women’s religious and cultural activities.
"The government narrative was that women needed to be liberated from religious oppression. They really took that [agency] away in the name of liberating women,” said Harris'
"""
An outspoken economics professor, Tohti was arrested on Jan. 15, 2014. While teaching, he regularly highlighted the religious and cultural persecution of the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
He was sentenced to life in prison on Sept. 23 the same year following a two-day show trial on charges of promoting separatism and has not been seen or heard from since 2017.
"""
#China security allegedly funded a far-right #European politician to gather data and "influence public opinion and politics in its favor," including attacking experts raising issues around #Uyghur human rights.
And if you are surprised a "#Communist" party is linked to the far-right...you shouldn't be.
THE OPPRESSION OF THE UYGHUR PEOPLE explored in heartbreaking detail through an exiled poet and filmmaker’s memoir. Beautiful writing about a horrifying topic brings stories of the imprisoned and murdered into the light. A MINUS
Interesting how the people who go "but China is doing XXX and XXX for solar/wind/EVs!" get suddenly silent when I ask about #Uyghur forced labor in #solar and #EV supply chains.
Somehow, this bothers me even more than the tankies genocide denial.
Just blocked a so-called leftist who responded to my Al Jazeera piece linking indigenous land grabs in #Indonesia to paper pulp exports destined for #Xinjiang by saying that the #Uyghur forced labor allegations are a "conspiracy theory."
Wish there weren't so many of those here on #Mastodon.
Reading the powerful letter from the former #UN#HumanRights NYC Director, calling for stronger action on #Gaza, but noticed something missing in this line
"I worked...through the genocides against the Tutsis, Bosnian Muslims, the Yazidi, and the
Rohingya"
Even in a letter of resignation and protest, he's silent, just like the entire #UnitedNations, on the #Uyghur genocide.
To be fair: some Democrats too. But at least we have Democrats who fight media control like Sanders. (lemmy.world)
They rushed that through with the quickness too (lemmy.world)