China’s WeChat Is a Hot New Venue for US Election Misinformation

[emily]

https://www.wired.com/story/chinese-ame ... ns-wechat/

“I’M AN ENGINEER; I like facts: one is one, zero is zero,” says More Less, the online pseudonym of a Silicon Valley-based software engineer from China. “I think it’s my responsibility to rebut this nonsense.”

More Less asked not to be identified by his real name because his posts might attract harassment. His Chinese-language fact-checking blog is part of a grassroots movement fighting political misinformation spread by US users of Chinese-language social media, such as Weibo and WeChat. His recent posts have taken on claims that California Democrats made it legal to shoplift up to $950 in goods or that widespread voter fraud distorted the 2020 presidential election.

With the US midterm elections two weeks away, More Less and other activists tracking misinformation in Chinese American communities worry that posts stoking racial tensions or casting doubt on the integrity of elections could sway close races—or cause people to abstain from voting.

Messaging app WeChat is seen as one of the main venues for Chinese-language misinformation in the US. The version offered in China, known as Weixin, is hugely influential and used for far more than chatting, with functions including hailing taxis and storing Covid vaccination codes. The US version has limited capabilities and a lower profile, aside from being the target of an attempted ban by then president Donald Trump in 2020. But WeChat is used by millions of Chinese Americans and people with friends, family, or business in China, including as a political organizing tool. In 2022, WeChat groups played a role in the recall of members of San Francisco’s school board, and New York City officials’ decision to pause plans to scrap testing requirements for some public high schools.

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