After all the lecturing the media gave to America about how bad it is to deny the results of any election, one of the media darlings has quietly admitted that China may have had something to do with the 2022 midterm results.
There’s no doubt that many on the right were let down that we didn’t see a great big red wave, and now, according to Forbes, the communists used TikTok to spread political messages that were mostly critical of the GOP in the months leading up to the election.
The accounts on TikTok that are in the spotlight have millions of followers and were able to garner tens of millions of views to spread the propaganda that the Chinese believed would be useful to their government. It is understandable why they felt like it would be in their favor if Democrats remained in power.
Forbes was able to discover the TikTok accounts controlled by Chinese state media that included videos negatively criticizing specific politicians and also attempting to undermine trust in American institutions. Tens of millions of people watched these slanted videos with no disclosure that they came from a foreign government.
MediaLinks TV managed the accounts in question, they are a registered foreign agent and a Washington D.C.-based outpost of the main Chinese Communist Party television news outlet – China Central Television.
Some of the larger accounts are @Pandaorama – a site that features cute videos of Chinese culture; @The…Optimist – a site focused on sustainability; and @NewsTokss – a site featuring U.S. national and international news.
Just before the November elections, @NewsTokss went after specific GOP candidates and favored Democratic candidates.
There was a video in July that began with the caption, “Cruz, Abbott Don’t Care About Us.” One from October was captioned “Rubio Has Done Absolutely Nothing.” And in another October video, they asked viewers to respond to Joe Biden’s promise to sign a bill codifying abortion rights.
They did all this without any disclosures that it was coming from a foreign government.
Why were the media’s lectures about election fraud so loud and this story so quiet?
Forbes discovered TikTok accounts controlled by Chinese state media that accumulated tens of millions of views before the midterm elections, on videos that often criticized specific politicians and sought to undermine trust in American institutions. https://t.co/FfwKVK9e2W pic.twitter.com/94RUNMkZvb
— Forbes (@Forbes) December 1, 2022
