New Delhi: China has hired foreign youtubers to praise the policies of China and change the mindset of people towards China. They use the content which says good things about the country and criticises the critics of the same.
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.
China has banned YouTube within its territories but the content of these YouTubers is widely shared and repeatedly praised by China’s state media like CGTN and many others. Their content is also widely spread on Chinese media platforms. The same Chinese media is highly critical of foreign media and foreign content creators. Any negative coverage by foreign media and accredited journalists about China’s actions is dubbed to be a ploy of the West but the content of these YouTubers is spread and promoted like gospel.
Over the course of researching these YouTube channels, a trend emerges. Most of the videos posted by these content creators during the early stages of their career were normal apolitical travel videos wherein these creators would travel to different places in Asia and try their food etc. Then about a year ago, their content became political and focused on debunking Western ‘lies’.
The intended audience for these YouTube videos is still unclear as they will only convince those individuals that are already staunch believers that China is innocent. But in China, these videos can have a major effect by reinforcing people’s faith in the Party by hiding the truth about the Chinese government’s actions.
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