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Australia has a fake news problem on WeChat and wants Tencent’s help
WeChat has been cleaning up misinformation in China, but not outside of it
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
While the US is still dealing with the fallout of fake news campaigns in 2016, Australia is in the midst of its own misinformation campaign, and it’s not just on Facebook and Twitter.
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Chinese social media platform WeChat has been bustling with misinformation as Australia prepares to elect new members of parliament this month.
WeChat, the app that does everything
On Monday, the Labor Party decided that the problem had escalated enough to send a letter to WeChat owner Tencent asking the company to clean up the fake news on the platform. Content on WeChat has been picking on Labor Party leader Bill Shorten, who is running for prime minister against incumbent Scott Morrison of the Liberal-National Coalition.
The platform may soon face even more scrutiny. Cyber propaganda researchers claim in a new paper that WeChat accounts spreading misinformation about the Australian election might be connected to the Chinese Communist Party, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
WeChat caters to the Chinese diaspora around the world, including Australia’s Chinese-speaking community. About 1.2 million Australians have Chinese ancestry, with more than 500,000 born in China.
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While audiences may differ, the topics of fake news in Australia will seem eerily similar to people familiar with past fake news controversies. Many articles are about immigration, taxes and same-sex relationships.
One post, for example, claims that Australia’s annual intake of refugees will rise to 150,000, costing taxpayers AU$10 billion per year, ABC reported. Another says that refugees will be given four-bedroom luxury homes with views, swimming pools and gymnasiums.
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