Celebrities influencers have played a great role in changing social media from something that was once an application where friends could share media with each other to something much greater. It’s become an incredible marketing and branding tool, a method to interact with their fans, and much more. Users’ feeds are often dominated by posts by their favorite celebrities. As much as celebrities have influenced our social media, China has played a greater role. As tensions between the U.S and China rise, it’s become apparent that China influences social media in a variety of ways. From censorship to the creation of our electronic devices, China is one of the main influencers of social media.
The Problems With Production
China largely influences our relationship with social media through the importation and production of electronic devices. We use these device daily to access and interact with social media. China makes 61.6% of electronic devices that are imported into the United States. This, in turn, gives them a stranglehold over the market and allows them to have power over the price of technology that we use.
Because of the recent tensions between the United States and China, tariffs have been raised to incredibly high prices. As tariffs are laid out, prices of imported goods skyrocket. This creates a problem for the average consumer looking to purchase a device. The price of computers, laptops, smartphones, cameras and other devices which they use to access and interact with social media will rise. Many American businesses prefer to produce their items in China because of cheap labor. This, in turn, makes many businesses reliant on China, especially tech companies. Though there are other countries for businesses to move to, it’s incredibly complicated to move factories from country to country when relations falter. When it becomes more expensive for companies to produce their products overseas, prices of those consumer goods are often raised.
The prices of these devices are not only affected by China, but also the speed at which they are produced. Chinese laws play a large role in the manufacturing of technology. Up until recently, forced technology transfers were commonplace in the Chinese market. This means that if a company wanted to enter China, they were forced to share their technology with Chinese companies. Oftentimes companies that manufacture in China are forced to follow Chinese laws. In fact, the Chinese Communist Party oftentimes has members within the company. Ultimately, the production of these devices tends to be slow as the complications are sorted out. Though, in this case, China doesn’t use technology to control us, they certainly control the price and quality of our tech.
How Censorship Impacts American Business
China is notorious for its strict censorship of western websites. Just a handful of the sites that are banned in China include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Tinder, WordPress, Google, Gmail, YouTube, Netflix, Twitch, etc. As you can see, the vast majority of sites that are banned in China are popular western apps. Before we go into the impacts that this has on western business, we must understand that China has the largest online population in the world. Their online presence is also continuing to grow as time goes on. The censorship of these sites in China creates a wide variety of issues for American companies.
If an American online company wants to be welcomed onto China’s internet they’ll have to change their site quite a bit. Take for example the popular social media networking site LinkedIn. LinkedIn was able to break into the Chinese market- at a heavy cost. In order to operate in China, LinkedIn had to change the majority of their rules. Not only that but LinkedIn has been labeled a potential domestic threat because China can potentially use the site to gather information about US citizens.
Social media companies in the west lose out on a huge number of potential clients when China doesn’t allow them to operate in the country. Less clients means less growth for American social media companies, and thus less opportunity to create jobs for American workers. On top of that, it’s been shown that if an American social media company manages to do business in China, they’ll risk having to cater to the needs of the Chinese. There’s a good chance that if those needs are met, it will alter how Americans interact with those social media companies and products.
Chinese Data-Mining
Chinese sites on the western market create a few issues. For starters, sites that are run from China itself don’t use encryption. This allows hackers or anyone who wants your data to come in and take it relatively unopposed. Other apps, such as TikTok, have recently come under fire due to the aspect of the app that collects user’s data. This is a common theme among many Chinese apps that come onto the western market. Although the Chinese apps won’t share your data with the world or use your data to keep track of you, app developers in China are still required to share the information with the Chinese government.
This may not seem like a big deal, but in reality, it creates a multitude of issues for those in the west. China may use your data to promote ads that encourage you to purchase Chinese apps. Not only does this create an annoyance for you, but it also creates issues for apps that are trying to market in the United States. U.S apps would be overshadowed by the ads promoting Chinese apps. This, in turn, gives China a huge amount of influence over the US online marketplace.
Furthermore, China also uses social media to take advantage of the potential security flaws of the internet. Apps such as Facebook found themselves in the midst of a controversy after selling user data and ad spaces to Chinese firms and businesses. In fact, Facebook made $5 billion by selling ad space to Chinese companies just last year. Because Chinese companies are most often-times backed by the government, Chinese companies are willing to pay large sums of money buying ad space.
China’s Global Influence
It should come as no surprise that China’s technological influence doesn’t just impact the United States. Countries in south-east Asia find themselves using China’s media outlets to cover global events. This, of course, means that the news is changed to make China appear better. Tik Tok is one of the main media outlets that China uses to influence their image.
Just one example of this is Tik Tok’s response to videos made about the tensions with India. Tik Tok videos that talked about the tensions at the Chinese – Indian border were often subject to a ‘shadowban’, or the video being hidden from the public without the owner’s knowledge. This is a clear demonstration of just how much influence China truly has over the world and the news that we receive.
Chinese malware is known to create major issues across the globe. Take for example the incident that happened just this year where phones given to low-income families were found to contain Chinese malware. This malware is used to give the Chinese almost unlimited access to your phone and its data. This, of course, is not only a major security issue for your social media privacy, but your entire life as a whole. This raises the question as to how many Chinese made devices were developed in China with malware.
While the likelihood of your phone containing malware is unlikely, the bold move by China demonstrates just how far they’re willing to push the limits.
Why Does This All Matter, Anyway?
China’s growing influence over social media is a troubling sight for the nations of the world. China has the goal of becoming the main technological power of the world by 2025. It seems that they’re well on their way to achieving this goal. As China continues to become a powerhouse in the production of technology, the speed and cost of the production of devices which we use to access social media will become more dependent upon China.
Not only that, but Chinese apps are also frequently becoming much more popular. The best example is, of course, Tik Tok. Other examples include games such as Helix Jump. These apps are able to monitor users’ favorite activities and products in order to give ads dedicated to the user. This creates a major issue- the promotion of Chinese-based companies. Additionally, Facebook, which also owns Instagram, is well-known for selling ad space to companies based in China. It seems China has a great influence over our user experience on social media.
In the coming years it wouldn’t be surprising to see China gain even more influence over the internet and social media. Most likely, the Chinese government will try to understand even better how U.S users interact with social media with the goal of manipulating them to favor China..
It’s important to keep this in the back of your mind for a few reasons. China is a major world power. Other countries that have seen China’s success with censorship and propaganda might give other developing nations ideas. Many countries, such as Russia, are beginning to see the benefits of censoring certain sites. It’s unlikely that the United States is going to follow in their footsteps, but it does mean that the United States might become a little more strict when it comes to social media usage.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see the United States begin to collect user data in China in order to promote businesses located within the United States. This, in turn, would lead to a sort of trade war in terms of ad space.
The United States and China are going to continue to attempt to grow stronger than one another and secure their spot as the top world power. With the internet and social media continuing to become one of the most important factors in the world, it’s in a precarious situation. You might think that celebrities influence our user experience with social media the most but, as it turns out, China is the greatest influencer. You may not notice it, but it’s there. China’s influence continues to grow every day. From your phone to your internet, China has a stake in it all.
This is amazing and wonderfully written!