China deploys foreign 'YouTubers' to create narratives and defame its critics: Experts

China has expertise in the manipulation of narratives and the propagation of false information, and these legions of foreign social media influencers seem to be the latest weapon that Beijing has deployed to defame its critics and to shift the narrative in its favour. 

New Delhi: A group of foreign YouTubers, ranging from British to Singapore, have recently been found uploading content and video that either praises China’s rapid development or criticises and tries to ‘debunk’ any negative foreign reports about it. China has expertise in the manipulation of narratives and the propagation of false information, and these legions of foreign social media influencers seem to be the latest weapon that Beijing has deployed in order to defame its critics and to shift the narrative in its favour. Experts who have been tracking these YouTubers observed that there have been hundreds of videos garnering millions of views. YouTubers deny that they are paid and sponsored by the Chinese government. When asked about why they continue to defend China, most of the content creators state that they are on a self-appointed mission to debunk the ‘lies’ of the West and if Chinese media shares their content ‘there is no harm in it.’ But the connection between these so-called independent YouTubers with Chinese State media does not end at the state media just sharing their content, by their own admission these YouTubers have even collaborated with Chinese state media on multiple videos. “One of these such content creators has less than 30,000 subscribers but regularly posts videos praising China and comparing the West to China with the goal of making it appear that China is better than the West. Similarly, one British vlogger frequently travels around China in his videos where he tries to portray China as the perfect country and the Chinese people as perfect and content,” one of the experts aware of these developments told Zee Media.