You're listening to a stage talk titled Navigating
Chinese Platforms for Research. This week, we
were joined by researcher Qiu Yang. Qiu is an
expert in Chinese audience research and came
in to provide us with an overview of the most
popular Chinese social media platforms. Her investigative
tips and tricks were focused on accessing the
platforms from foreign devices. and she mentioned
some useful resources for analyzing country -wide
and diaspora -wide trends. You can find links
to all of the resources mentioned in the talk
in the podcast description. This talk was hosted
by me, Charlotte Marr, on Thursday the 30th of
April, 2026, in the BellyCat Discord server.
Welcome all to our Stage Talk series. Thanks
for joining us today, especially if it's sunny
where you are. I hope you're enjoying the sunshine
when and where you can. Chinese social media
is one of the world's most dynamic digital ecosystems.
But for researchers and journalists working from
outside China, it can be difficult to access,
navigate and interpret in some cases. In this
stage talk, we're joined by Qu Yang, an analyst
and researcher with experience studying Chinese
and Iranian media environments. Qu contributes
to the China Media Project, and recently wrote
a guide on researching on the app Xiaozhuangshu,
red note, for Bellingcat. Today, together, we'll
explore how these platforms work in practice,
what makes them distinct, and how to approach
them effectively from a foreign device. Whether
you're tracking stories, analyzing trends or
just trying to get a clearer view into these
spaces, this session will offer practical insights
and grounded advice. Before we start, a short
reminder that you can place your questions in
the chat accessible on the right hand corner
of your screen. But please remember that this
is being audio recorded for the podcast. So if
you don't want me to mention your username for
security reasons or whatever, please add that
as a note in your question. Okay, Chu, I'll cross
over to you and I will mute my mic. Hi. Hi, everyone.
I'm going to share my screen first. Hi, everyone.
I'm glad to be here and to have the chance to
connect with the Valentine community. My name
is Chu Yang. I'm a journalist and media researcher
focusing on China's digital spaces and information
ecosystem. I write for the China Media Project
and I recently published a guide on Balinkite
about using xiao hong shu, also known as Red
Note or Little Red Book for open source investigation.
Today, I want to talk about something quite practical,
how you can actually use Chinese social media
as a journalist or researcher even if you don't
have a Chinese phone number, don't read Chinese
and have never opened any of these apps before.
So I will cover the three things, how to get
the access, why this platform is worth your time,
and which tools and resources to use. So the
first one, let's start with the most basic question.
What can you actually do without a Chinese phone
number? It's actually more than you might think.
First, you don't even need an account. Weibo,
you can actually see trendy topics without any
account. The hot search list, meaning like trendy
topics, is publicly accessible. Douyin and xiaohongshu
are more limited. You can scroll through whatever
the algorithm serves you. By the moment you want
to search, open a specific post, or read the
comments, you will need to register. But you
can register with the overseas number. All these
three platform accepts international phone numbers,
and unlike Chinese users who are subject to real
-name registration requirements, international
users aren't, so the setup process is actually
quite relaxed. You can use your regular phone
number, or if you prefer to keep the things separate,
a cheap prepaid SIM card that can receive a verification
code works just fine, but Here I want to flag
something important, especially for xiaohongshu.
When you register with an overseas number, the
platform automatically tags you as an international
user. And that changed everything about what
you see. The algorithm will start pushing you
English language content, posts from expat influencers
or content created for international audiences,
which Sounds convenient, but for investigation
purpose, it's actually quite a problem. Because
what you are seeing is no longer what the Chinese
users see. So my first practical tip, if you
are using Xiaohongshu for research, disabled
automatic translation. Let the app show you content
as it natively appears. It will help you distinguish
between posts made for domestic audiences. and
posts made for people like you. And more broadly,
be aware that your feed is being shaped constantly.
Every search you do, every post you do on, every
account you follow, all of all of that trains
your algorithm. Your location also plays a role.
The xiaohongshu you see after a week of use will
be quite different from the one a user in Shanghai
sees. That's not a reason not to use it, but
it's something to keep in mind when you are accessing
how representative your sample is. So this is
the basic access issues. The next question is
like, why do you need to use Chinese social media?
So I would like to frame it around three directions.
Direction 1 is searching for topics and resources.
Chinese social media are quite simply enormous.
Xiaohongshu alone has around 300 million monthly
active users and processes over 600 million searches
a day. Weibo has been the de facto public square
for Chinese internet users for over a decade.
For journalists, that means there is a huge amount
of primary source material, eyewitness accounts,
personal testimonials, grassroots reactions to
events that simply don't service in English language
media. I will give you an example from my guide.
When the 2025 Miss Finland was accused of making
anti -Asian gestures, A search for 芬蘭小姐, Mr.
Land, combined with 投訴, which means complaint,
on 小紅書, revealed an entire ecosystem of collective
action. Users were sharing complaint templates,
posting different pathways for filing reports,
documenting outcomes. That's not something you'll
find in your Reuter wild story, but It's exactly
the kind of grassroots coordination that's valuable
to report on. And with the Chinese diaspora now
spread across the world, there are millions of
Chinese nationals living outside of China. Social
media activity by the diaspora community can
turn into global stories. Xiaohongshu in particular
has become a kind of lifestyle and community
hub for young Chinese living abroad, which makes
it especially useful for stories involving that
demographic. And on direct two is understanding
real public opinion and nuance. This is where
it gets really interesting and this is actually
something that happened last week. So it's very
timely. On Tuesday, China's Ministry of State
Security published a post to its Chinese account,
claiming that hostile foreign forces are funding
lying flat influencers to systematically brainwash
Chinese youth. Lying flat, Tangping, in Chinese,
is a cultural phenomenon where young people opt
out of the relentless pressure to work harder
and more compete for status. It's essentially
China's version of quiet quitting, but more philosophically
deliberate. The state's security is announcing
that this isn't an organic social response. It's
more like a foreign plot. Now, if you only read
the official statement, you get one picture.
But if you go to Xiaohongshu and search Tangping
right now, you get something completely different.
The comments section are full of mockery. I pulled
a few quotes at random from the comment section
on a Xiaohongshu post by a state media account
sharing the video. So not sure if you can read
it, but it says, one user from Beijing wrote,
no need to incite us. We chose this ourselves.
And another one from Jiangsu said, where do we
collect the foreign money? Let's go together.
And then there are... is my personal favorite,
a user who wrote completely deadpan. I'm 38 years
old and I want to answer to the nation's call.
I'm planning to join the tobacco company, the
power company, patrol China, listing every state
-owned, essentially unattainable employer he
can think of. And the reason why he wrote 38
is It's a phenomenon in China that now, like
after you are 35, basically it's really hard
to find a job. So he would kind of like put,
have order warning or like the art target. That
comment is doing a lot of work in not so rejecting
the official framing. It's pointing directly
at the structure inequality that drives line
flight. in the first place. The irony is that
that exists precisely because the competition
for the state sex drop is so brutal and so unfair
that many young people have simply just given
up trying. This gap between the official narrative
and what people are actually seeing is itself
a story and you can only find it if you are looking
at the platforms. And the third direction I want
to point out is studying Chinese social media
as a subject. It's slightly different. Instead
of using these platforms as a resource for other
stories, you are studying the platforms themselves
from a media or technology perspective. How does
censorship work? what gets deleted and when.
How do viral information ecosystems function
under authoritarian control? This is a longer
term, more systematic work. But it's some of
the most important jumbling being done on China
right now. I will put you to some resources for
this. So let me give you some practical tools
organized in three levels. The level one is the
platform specific tracking. For Weibo, the simply
entry point is the hot search list, weibo .com
slash hot. It's a real time ranking. of trendy
topics updated constantly. Even without reading
Chinese, you can track what topics are moving
and use translation tool to understand them.
For xiaohongshu, the built -in search is more
powerful than it looks. A few things worth you
can already check most of how it works from the
guides Charlie just shared. A few things worth
knowing is like you can combine keywords to narrow
results. Instead of just searching a topic, combine
it with a verb or action, like I mentioned with
miss Finland and complaint. And you can also
filter by different kinds of content types. So
I won't get it too much into the building search.
I think I have put most of this content inside
the note. For tracking content trends across
platforms, which articles are going viral on
WeChat, which posts on Xiaohongshu I get in traction.
New rank, which I also mentioned in the guide,
is useful analytics. tool. It's not just for
Xiaohu Shu, it covers all platforms. So it tracks
content heat, account ranks, and article virality
peaks. It's in Chinese but navigable with a translation
layer. And the tier two is understanding Chinese
digital culture. For anyone who doesn't read
Chinese and wants to follow what's happening
on Chinese platforms, my strongest recommendation
is What's on Weibo. The site has recently rebranded
to cover a broad scope under the name Eye on
Digital China, which reflects the reality that
the Chinese internet has expanded well beyond
Weibo. It published English language explainers
on viral moments, trendy topics, and platform
developments, updated very regularly. It's genuinely
one of the best entry points into Chinese digital
culture for non -Chinese readers. And the level
3... in censorship and platform mechanism. For
more systematic long -term research, China Digital
Times does two important things. It tracks significant
Internet events and viral incidents. And it also
archives censored content from Chinese platforms.
It also reports on Chinese censorship. So if
a post gets deleted, there is a reasonable chance
CDT has a record of it. And for academic level
research into censorship, censorship mechanism,
specifically, citizen lab at the University of
Toronto has done extensive rigorous work on how
Chinese platforms censor content, what a keyword
list looks like, and how the system adapts over
time. Their reports are publicly available. So
to sum up, Chinese social media is accessible.
probably more accessible than most people assume.
You don't need a Chinese phone number to browse
and you don't need to read Chinese to get a start.
But the real value isn't just the access, it's
the ability to see what visual narratives are
up against. The irony, the mockery, the quiet
resistance, the structured critique hidden inside
a joke about applying to Patrol China. So that's
where the story is and these platforms are where
you'll find it. My guide on Xiaohongshu is on
the Bellingcat website. So you can just check
it out and I'm happy to answer questions now.
Thank you so much too. Thank you for going through
those really systematic tips and also for spotlighting
why. Oh, I didn't even realize I didn't turn
on my video. No worries. I was just saying, it
was great to also hear why this research is important
and how it impacts not only knowledge of what's
going on within the country, but also with the
Diaspora as well, as you mentioned. Please do
take a moment to read Chu's guide. As I said,
it's in the chat and it's a fantastic run -through
of how to dive into that particular platform.
I wanted to ask Chu to kick the questions off.
How do Chinese platforms in general differ in
terms of content visibility and moderation? compared
to platforms that maybe have a more global view.
Is moderation a little bit stronger on Chinese
apps or is it a little bit freer? Can you talk
through a little bit what the moderation controls
are like on those platforms? I think it depends.
So for the Chinese social media platforms, how
can I put this way? So for the platforms, If
they are a huge platform, so when people, when
they are doing like a sensor content, that means
like they will affect the user experience. So
this is a, so they operate in two layers. First
layers is actually, they operate like a normal
business or like a company, like any big platform,
like any big... any global platform. So they
have to care about the user experience or like
not censor too much. And this is the one thing.
But on the other hand, they also have to align
with the state censorship, like all the rules
or regulations. That means like they have to
find a balance between like there are the absolute
red line that you can't cross. I think you can
find all these red lines from any research on
Chinese censorship. What are the absolute taboos
that you are not allowed to discuss on social
media? Beyond this red line, there you can actually
have sort of autonomy to decide how you are going
to do your moderation. That means if you're a
big platform, you will have more leverage to
kind of negotiate with the state or to not regulate
too much so that you won't push your users away.
Was the moderation in Chinese social media different
from their global platform? I think that's one
big difference is that how relaxed your regulation
or moderation is depends on the size of your
platform. So it can actually become your leverage.
And I'm not talking about a sock puppet account
here where you probably wouldn't engage too much.
But if, for example, you wanted to get your story
out to Chinese audiences and you decided to publish
on a Chinese platform, how would you know if
your account is being restricted or shadow limited?
Are there signs? And how do you maintain a normal
looking account from outside China? Okay, so
it depends. The platform that does the shadow
ban, the most sneaky is Xiaohongshu. And they
will shadow ban a lot of content for political
content, or you simply can't publish any political
content. without any permit or like state authorized
permit. So they are really strict on political
content. And you will know if you can see like
the traffic. You can kind of sense based on the
interaction or the traffic that shows on your
phone. Oh no, like shows on your, on your post.
So if you post something and then you realize,
okay, it has zero views or very few views, that
means like your shadow band or the traffic is
restricted. So it's the same with Weibo, but
in general, Weibo is more relaxed than Xiaohongshu.
You can post many things, way more things on
Weibo than Xiaohongshu. Also what I talk about,
what I meant by leverage. So another thing I
think is like, we chat, we chat, they have official
accounts. So in general, I think like they are
actually probably like the most, how can I say?
They are probably like the most relaxed one.
You can actually post more, more things there.
But before you publish, for that one is, before
you publish, they will give you a warning if
something sensitive or censored words is included.
And then you have to check yourself and revise
to make it published. Once it's published, normally
it should be fine. That means like it went through
the test. it went through the test. Of course,
it can be deleted later, but in general, you
can post more things there than Xiaohongshu and
probably even more than Weibo. That's really
interesting. I'd love to revisit the conversation
on verification on those platforms in a second.
But I'm also conscious that we've got quite a
few questions coming through. So I wanted to
make sure that we answer those. Nick has mentioned,
thank you for the great resources. You mentioned
that Chinese authorities now view lying flat
or Tangping as a foreign information operation.
Are there reports verifying that these are targeted
campaigns? Is there a way to kind of outline
what are targeted campaigns on these social media
sites. So we're talking about like the lying
flat? No, no, they are definitely not targeted
campaign. It's just they are trying to claim
that way. This kind of links in with my question
on verification, so perhaps I'll ask it now.
For example, on Twitter, we used to have the
blue tick. opportunity where you knew if someone
was kind of verified on Twitter because of the
blue tick, that's since kind of gone away. Now
everyone can buy access to a blue tick. You mentioned
that WeChat has official accounts. Do any of
the popular Chinese social media platforms have
this kind of verification feature in them so
that you know whether you're talking to an official
or whether you're viewing an official page? For
example, do they have kind of verification features
like that? For the WeChat official account, it's
actually quite different from what we mean like
a verified account. It's just a call that way.
But it's just basically like a publishing platform
that everyone can use. So even an individual
can run an official account. But when you start,
it's tied to your real name. It's your Chinese
ID. And every ID can apply for open... find most
accounts. At most. Yeah. So it's quite different
from, it has nothing to do with like, it's not
like a recognized reputation or anything like
that. It just has its name. It's interesting
that you can't separate the ID from the account
though. Um, so you have businesses, I'm guessing
on these platforms represented via someone's
ID and employee's ID and et cetera like that
on these platforms. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, that's
true. But, but that also mean like if that account
publish something like illegal or like a problematic
and that people is like legally have to take
the legal responsibility. Right. Interesting.
Okay. Yeah, you'd have to be pretty confident
in your workplace to kind of take on that kind
of responsibility, hey? Carvin asks, any experiences
of using different tools for scraping and analysing
for Charonchou? Any recommended software, GitHub,
for example? Um, have you had an experience scraping
these social media sites? But I feel like there's
any scraping tools for xiao hong shu is there.
Um, like for, from my experience, like xiao hong
shu, like they don't really have like that API
open for like scraping. So any tools is actually
not that, it can't like the scrape. Xiaohongshu
can't be scraped like any other like Twitter
what people do with Twitter like before people
can do with Twitter before like basically you
you scrape 10 or some posts and then it will
cut off and you have to like kind of redo it
basically like every 10 every 10 or 20 posts,
you have to do it again. So it can never do anything
like what people can do with Twitter. So it's
a little bit more limited. Somebody said no way
back machine for it. No, I don't think so. Unfortunately.
Somebody else put in the chat, social media manager
in China sounds like a risky job. Absolutely.
Arcadia End has asked, thank you for the interesting
talk. Is using China Digital Times the best way
to track when articles have been deleted from
WeChat accounts, et cetera, or is there a way
to do it yourself? My interest area is quite
niche and I feel China Digital Times is more
focused on political economic topics. So is there
a way to find out if articles have been deleted
from WeChat accounts yourself? track when articles
have been deleted through. But I think like that
thing, the most thing, the main issue is like
your judgment. You have to know which article
might be deleted and then you can track. I think
that's more like the political judgment. It's
more important than actually the technical part.
So for China Digital Times, I think China Digital
Times, they do something like rescuing archiving.
That means they would archive content that they
think it might be deleted. but it might not,
but there is a way, I think it has to be like
what are you going to, because there are tons
of articles, what articles are you going to,
do you want to follow, or is there a specific
content or topic that you actually want to follow?
So I think that's the judgment to set your tracker,
like what kind of things you want to track. Thanks
for that. There's been quite a conversation in
the chat about Chinese names and English names
and then not translating. back -to -back. I wondered
if we could dig a little bit deeper into, you
mentioned that you'd recommend people searching
in Chinese rather than searching in English or
another language on these platforms. Do you have
any tips for figuring out keyword searching given
language nuances and censorship sensitivities?
Are there tools, translation services or workflows?
that you recommend for non -Chinese speakers
when looking for these kind of keywords perhaps
along trends or niche topics? I think actually
China Digital Times, it's a great resource. Let
me see if I can find it. I think they are a great...
The resource, they have like everything. They
also have a database, kind of like a kind of
database with the least censored words list and
also with explanation for why certain words is
censored. Yeah, I think that's the best go -to
resource to use. So don't rely on Google Translate.
No, I think the good thing with China Digital
Time is like they have an English version. Really
useful. Someone's just put in the chat, there's
a tracker for WeChat on greatfire .org for anybody
who's looking for that. We've had a few other
questions coming in. Someone asked earlier, would
using a Chinese phone make tracking Chinese social
media easier in some ways? Am I right in thinking
that if you had a Chinese phone, you'd still
need a Chinese ID, is that correct? Or would
a mobile device be sufficient enough? Yeah, but
the thing with Chinese phone is like you need
a Chinese ID to get a Chinese phone number. So
yes, of course, having a Chinese phone will make
that easy, but then you will need someone or
someone who has a Chinese ID to buy that phone
number for you. That means that person will be
responsible for everything. And as a follow -up,
someone's asked, and I think you touched on this
in the talk, but maybe we could just recap. For
platforms that require a phone, is there a method
for non -mainland people to access? So is there
a method to access those platforms without making
an account? There are ways, but I don't think
we should probably discuss it. Not open source
ways. Not open source ways. Yes. Take that to
direct message. Yes, exactly. Thanks guys for
the comments there. We've had a few other questions
about, would your previous content on other platforms
be an issue? For example, Not Going to Look said,
would your ex content be an issue? I speak amongst
some interesting people. I also witnessed as
Romani means I may or may not have spoken of
political arcs, though I only have ever mentioned
Chinese state once. Would your behaviour on other
platforms impact your ability to register on
these? No, no. As long as you don't public talk
too much about China, it's fine. And then someone
else has asked on the censorship issue, how much
censorship is done by the platforms versus how
much is done by the CAC? Does the CAC have staff
that work in the platform? So do they just provide
guidance to platforms on what to censor? Where
are the censorship lines? So for the censorship
line, I like during my, I think like in a previous
answers, I have mentioned that CAC, they set
up their red line. And that red line is evolving
over time. That means there are the absolute
taboo that you are now allowed to discuss on
social media. For example, Xi Jinping or all
kinds of his nicknames. are becoming the expanding
database of the red line. So they are the one
who set up those red lines. And beyond that red
lines, the platform, they have their own autonomy
to decide how much or how relaxed or how tight
they want the censorship. In general, Weibo based
on beyond the guidance provided by CAC, they
have more autonomy to decide what to keep. So
you can actually see quite a lot of resistance
or like rebel statements on Weibo. But there
is another platform, it's called Douban. So it's
like Chinese version of good rate. Usually people
use that for reviewing books and movies. And
people also use that as a social platform to
share opinions. So for that one, they probably
have the tightest control or even more than the
CAC guidance. Because it's a small platform and
their users are more smarter in... in expressing
their political view or their resistance. So
they have more rules there, so it's tighter.
And also because it's a smaller platform, so
they don't really have that many leverage. So
they want to, for their own survival reason,
they want to keep the censorship tighter. In
regards to finding ways that people are speaking
about potentially taboo subjects on these platforms,
somebody's put, I've seen in the past that Chinese
users will use homonyms of censored words. Is
this still a tactic being used to evade the censors?
And somebody else earlier asked if there was
any resources for finding ways that people were
like terms that people were using to discuss
more taboo subjects. Is there resources like
that available? Yeah, that's still a tactic.
And you can also find those kind of like the
database of the this kind of word list on China
digital times. They have like a system, they
systematically like document all of this, all
of this words. and also for not just censor wars
but like a new phenomenon it's probably I'm not
sure how many of you have followed China's politics
but like the nickname of Xi Jinping because every
people can't talk about his name and most people
probably the thing most people know probably
like Winnie the Pooh but after that Because all
the things related to him is so heavily censored.
So people just keep coming up with new ways to
name him. So that itself is an expanding database.
That's great. Thank you. Questions keep coming
in. We've got about 15 minutes. So please do
pop your final... Final questions in for the
last 15 minutes. I wanted to ask how much impact
has AI had on how Chinese audiences converse
online? Obviously we're seeing a huge impact
of how it's impacting more Western facing. social
media platforms with Trump, for example, consistently
publishing AI imagery and also being part of
daily use. I mean, X has its own and Meta both
have their own AI generation chatbots now. How
much impact has AI had on how Chinese audiences
converse online and the platforms themselves?
Do they have any AI chatbots embedded or anything
like that? Yeah, I think like every, even Xiaohongshu
had the embedded AI search engine. And I think
like one of the interesting thing with AI is
actually how, because Cloudy, it's not accessible
in mainland China. So that's a I think like that's
an interesting phenomenon that you can see people
how people discuss like how you can invade that
kind of a geoblock How to get a Gmail like how
to actually use the real AI a lot of people I'm
sure I can see a lot of the discussions how people
want to Because like for them, this is also some
the reverse censorship in a way for them So I
can see a lot of discussion about how they can
actually got access, how to avoid being disabled,
disbanded by Claudia. So that's the discussion
I've seen. For the domestic AI models, I think
like most people use it for fun. People won't
use it for research, but mainly use it for silly
reactions about ordering their delivery food,
how to best order delivery food, and how to dress,
how to decide their dress code or outfit. daily
outfit. I think that's what I have seen most.
For research purposes, people want to use a Cloudy
or Gemini, but the geoblock is an issue for them.
Are you also seeing AI being used for misinformation
on the platform as well? Do you often see misinformation
and disinformation being shared on Chinese platforms
as commonly as we see on more globalized social
media platforms. Obviously it's a huge issue
over here. I'm wondering if there's similar issues
on being able to assess credibility on these
platforms as we talked about earlier with the
difficulty with verification as well. Yeah, but
I think the thing with AI usage within China,
the thing is like a lot of people, I think they
still even don't realize how sensitive the content
in Chinese are. So a lot of them won't actually
realize the content they see on the AI. It's
actually biased or like it can even be like disinformation.
So I think that's the one thing to work on is
the media literacy, which is really bad in so
many ways in China. So I think the problem is
a lot of people don't realize or haven't realized.
But people have this sense, you can't trust the
AI on everything. Well, I'm glad to hear that.
We've got one question on Chinese corporate aggregators.
It seems like the last of the Chinese corporate
aggregators have been blocked outside of mainland
China in the past month or so. Are any other
recommendations or workarounds for those? Do
you have any familiarity with the corporate aggregators?
Yes. So the recommendation for that one, you
actually have to use the VPN to the tour to China
to the Chinese IP and then you can have the access
from there. But then the problem is like you
also you need a phone number, a Chinese phone
number to actually access those aggregators.
That's the main issue than just the VPN. Yeah,
but I want just say the name of the VPN, but
you need a VPN to, to a Chinese Ikey. And then
you can, it can work. Thanks for that tip. VPNs
are needed more and more. Even in the UK, I can't
read blue sky DMs without a VPN on at the moment.
So, yes, it's a thing. Going back to the censorship
question, we've just had one come in. How does
the CAC and platform moderation affect Hong Kong
users? Are the platforms the same in Hong Kong
as mainland China now? So the thing is like,
it's not about like the location of the user,
more the platform of the user. The problem is
not location of the users, but the platform itself.
So even the Hong Kong users, if they are subject
to the CAC regulation, if they're on Weibo or
like Douyin, or maybe if they use TikTok, it
can be better. But if they use all the others,
Weibo, Xiaohongshu, which a lot of people are
using. So they will definitely subject to the
CAC moderation. So it has nothing to do with
the location. We're all like mainland or Hong
Kong. It's more about the platform itself, where
the platform is located. And is that the same
for if you never use Chinese language on the
account? So if you've, for example, as you were
saying on Red Note, if you've kind of logged
in with an English language setting, you're still
being censored in the same way. So for example,
if you try to post on a word that's censored,
you'd still be censored despite it being in English,
correct? Yeah. I'm really sorry if I pronounce
this incorrectly, but for Wisin and WeChat, there
is a difference between user agreements, right?
Is that similar for any of the other platforms?
So for the Wisin and WeChat, it's like one is
for the user within China, the other is like
users outside of China. The user agreements,
whatever they say in the agreements, it's...
The main difference is where the data is stored,
like where they store their data. So that's the
main difference. And WeChat is the same and Xiaohongshu
is still the same. Even they have the international
split so far, it's still like having the same
data. have the data saved at the same place.
For the different ways, Douyin and TikTok, it's
different. So they store their user data at different
places. So I think there are two approaches.
So one is to store data at separate places or
still use the same one. So far, we still can't
see because it's still early stage to say where
they're heading to. But so far, it's still the
same. We don't encourage quick turnaround stories
at Bellingcat. We're very much a long -form kind
of platform. But let's just say, for example,
you're working at a more breaking news newsroom
and you need to find out quickly. what the Chinese
audiences are saying on a particular political
issue. What would be your advice to someone who's
coming in really fresh and needs a quick answer
to how Chinese audiences are reacting to a particular
political issue quickly? What would be your step
-by -step guidance on that if you're looking
for breaking responses on Chinese social media?
Breaking responses. I think the first place I
would choose would be Weibo. That's where, like
I mentioned during the presentation, that's the
de facto public square. So you can see a lot
of other breaking responses or breaking news
are discussed there. That's all the discussion
is happening. So just go there and see what people
are discussing or especially look at the comment
section. I think comment section is a goldmine
where you can actually see what the normal people
might respond or what they actually think. This
is actually one takeaway. I have done like China
studies for many years. Um, so I think like this
is, uh, uh, this is the thing. It's like when
people see the breaking news or breaking response,
they first think like, Oh, China said blah, blah,
blah. Or like China invading Taiwan or something.
Um, or like, uh, all, all the Chinese people
are supporting the government, either supporting
the government or, um, um, being there. dissident,
but it's actually quite a nuance, way more nuanced
than that. And a lot of it like in between. So
even people, maybe they don't dislike the government,
but they also have their own dissatisfaction.
So I think like the common section is where you
can actually find this kind of nuances where
what actually the actual people. are thinking
or what the actual people are saying. So I think
that's the thing often absent from reporting.
Thanks for that guidance. It's really good to
know. Someone's put in the chat, comment section
is a goldmine is so, so true. So definitely check
those out. We had a comment earlier that was
asking for a follow -up on the corporate aggregators,
whether having a Taiwanese phone number helps
access them. And somebody in the chat has suggested
they're all Chinese only, I'm afraid, or VPN.
So that's your solution there. Yeah, thanks so
much guys for your comments. We have five more
minutes, so if you have a final question, please
do put it in the chat. You mentioned loads of
resources in regards to training the algorithm
towards your research interests. For example,
if you make a sockpuppet account, an account
where you are trying to focus on one specific
topic. What's the best way to kind of train that
on the different social media accounts that you've
mentioned? Xiaohongshu I'm guessing is more of
a continuously searching the keywords and liking
content like that. Do you need to comment on
items for it to be fed to you on some of these?
How do the algorithms work in regards to trying
to tailor your feed into the topic area that
you're trying to research? So I think for Weibo,
that's two of the platforms people use the most.
And I think Weibo is quite simple. You just follow
other opinion leaders or influencers. You follow
them and they will repost some... they will repost
when some viral event happens. And then you will
see that's a way, you can use that one as a starting
point, entry point. And then you can find more.
So basically you want to... let the algorithm
know what kind of people you want to follow and
it will give you a recommendation. I recently
tried. It's actually quite accurate. So if you
follow some liberal bloggers with liberal views,
and if you follow one, it will recommend you
several more. It's actually quite accurate. And
then if you want to follow the nationalist side
of their block, how they respond to official
framing, or how they amplify the state voices,
you can actually follow, I think like in... previous
reports, people have already identified the networks
of those kind of national list of bloggers. So
it's actually very easy to find one and then
you can very easily to identify the network.
I can try to find that one, the article, but
it was back then it's basically a network of
amplified state points. So basically I think
the the whole point is what kind of you want
to write or like if you work as a researcher
or like a journalist what's your beat or what's
your focus or like what's your topic and I think
after that you will figure out who or what to
follow and for xiao hong shu I think it's quite
easy you just search and search the topic then
you have to be creative What are the things in
between the whole workflow? How you can cut the
workflow into different pieces that you can actually
try to match your keywords, search word or keywords.
with the process. It's the same with doing an
open source investigation or it's like you have
to be creative. You have to understand like how
things work and where you can actually find the
thing to cut in. It's going to put your problem
solving skills to the test. Well, unfortunately
we're coming to time, but if people want to feed
back or if they just have follow -up questions,
where can they get in contact with you? They
can contact me. I have a LinkedIn. I think that's
probably the best way to reach you. Oh, no, sorry.
It's okay. I can probably add it in. And again,
please do take some time to have a look at her
fabulous guide into red notes. really worth looking
at and learning from. There's some really useful
tips in there that everybody hopefully can learn
from. And if you're interested in talking about
this subject further, by all means, we have spaces
within the stage talk. Ah, you found your LinkedIn.
I was just posting it here. Thanks for that.
We have a space to talk about the tools and sites
where you can post useful things. You can also
use InfoSec to talk about digital security. Central
Asia, a space where we talk a lot about Chinese
news as well. So please do use those spaces in
the Discord as well to dig further into this.
But for now, thank you everybody for listening
and thank you two for coming in to talk to us.
We'll be back in two weeks time with another
stage talk. But for now guys, happy reading the
guide and good luck with your little puzzle.
All right, thank you so much all. Thank you for
listening to the stage talk. If you'd like to
catch a stage tour live where you can ask the
guest questions, join the Bellingcat Discord
server by visiting www .discord .gg slash Bellingcat.
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