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.

    • cm0002@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        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.

    • KamikazeRusher@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      “I’m an American and have a right to free speech, no matter what country the service is hosted in!”

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        That’s certainly what certain people on lemmy.world seem to think despite the server being in The Netherlands.

      • gidostro@lemmy.cafe
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        1 day ago

        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?

    • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      My question is how much of these articles are manufactured outrage. Like, I can’t imagine anybody expected anything different - especially since some of this stuff is censored already on American social media (especially LGBT related stuff), and the media has spent 50 years telling Americans how much censorship there is in China and the Great Firewall.

      • spicehoarder@lemm.ee
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        21 hours ago

        Probably 90% from my personal experience, I see loads of LGBTQ posts on RedNote. I wonder if they’re being sensored or just waiting to go through the moderation queue.

        I could see English posts maybe accumulating negative sentiment scores or even just a lack of known words causing a post to end up in a moderation queue.

        For reference sentiment scores are basically a numeric way of scoring a post. Words like “hate” get -10 points neutral words get 1 point, and positive words like love and friendship get +10 points. At least when I was in college, this was a popular way for social media to determine if they should push your content or not.

        • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 hours ago

          I said in another comment about what I learned from following a Chinese lesbian on Twitter is that with China it’s like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” - you can say and do things that you could or should get in trouble for, but as long as you do it the right way, it’ll be overlooked.

          There’s gay bars and a big lesbian scene in China, but there’s a common practice there, that used to happen in Europe and the US as well before the culture shifted, where lesbians get married to men - either gay guys or just a guy they have an arrangement with - to fulfill the cultural obligation expected of them to get married, and then they basically live their own separate lives.

          So most likely what’s happening is people who don’t know the cultural do’s and don’t’s are getting censored for stepping over the line.

          But LGBTQ stuff is censored all the time on other social media anyway, whenever they think they can get away with it, so it’s not like it’s all that surprising - especially when you add in China’s official stance on LGBTQ people.

          These feel like they’re freaking out about something that everybody already knew was gonna happen, and omitting the fact that it happens elsewhere as well to make it seem like a big deal.

      • gidostro@lemmy.cafe
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        1 day ago

        This is all just leading up to the TikTok savior Trump winning over the youth crowd. If you force them to a platform that is much worse, they will forget how controlling the previous platform was and just be happy to have it.

    • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      You are assuming TikTokers have any intelligence, morals, principle or talent (or even humanity)

        • ScoopMcPoops@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          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.