China purges Internet of ‘sexy’ women and ‘overeating’, RT’s Africa plan, and UN debates cyber crime
“No sexy women” — that’s how censors in China marked the Lunar New Year. In yet another ambitious attempt to control the behavior of one billion internet users, the country’s top cyberspace watchdog launched a month-long campaign to purge the internet of ex-criminals, “sexy” women and overeating. The goal of this moral clean-up is to sweep away “vulgar” and “unhealthy” tendencies, purify “online ecology” and curtail the spread of “bad culture.” The South China Morning Post has more details here.
RT France, Russia’s last official propaganda stronghold in the West, has shut down. The French arm of the state-sponsored broadcaster was the only one to survive the EU ban on Russian media within Europe, issued shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last February. But the latest round of European Union sanctions on Russia led to the freezing of RT France’s assets and forced them to shut down. The Russian Foreign Ministry promised retaliation. But the ban doesn’t mean the end of Kremlin disinformation campaigns in Europe. Researchers in France anticipate that at least some of the RT French language content will survive through mirror sites and social media.
RT may be shutting down in Europe but it’s growing in Africa, where the network is actively recruiting journalists across the continent offering “competitive packages” and an opportunity to join a company that provides a “true alternative to the Western viewpoint.” The quote is from an email that was shared with me by a Kenyan journalist RT is trying to hire. I have also seen WhatsApp messages sent to journalists across the continent from RT’s headquarters in South Africa. It’s an impressive, comprehensive effort.
RT’s focus on Africa is also deeply strategic. Just look at Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s itinerary. This week, he is back in Africa after enjoying a widely publicized visit to the continent in July, holding what South African officials described as “wonderful” talks in Pretoria. The result of Russia’s intense courtship of the continent: South Africa will hold joint naval drills with Russia and China off its coast next month. South Africa’s foreign minister deflected criticism of the exercises on Monday, saying that hosting such exercises with “friends” was the “natural course of relations.”