Bots and Fake Accounts Push China’s Vision of Winter Olympic Wonderland
The New York Times
The country’s propagandists have used a variety of tools online to promote a vision of the Games that is free of rancor or controversy.
This article is published with ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative newsroom.
BEIJING — Inside the Potemkin village of China’s propaganda, the Winter Olympics have unfolded as an unalloyed success, a celebration of sports and political harmony that has obscured — critics say whitewashed — the country’s flaws and rights abuses.
At Beijing 2022, the hills are snowy, not brown as usual this time of year. A Uyghur skier is the symbol of national unity, the tennis player Peng Shuai just a curious spectator. Athletes and foreign journalists praise the polite volunteers and marvel at the high-speed trains and the robots that boil dumplings and mix drinks.
