Weibo’s new anti-misinformation feature targets US Embassy, Russian state media

The platform tries to appear neutral in deciding what to fact-check, but Chinese government accounts remain off limits.

In early April, a piece of misinformation went viral on China’s town square-like social media platform Weibo, claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had secretly purchased a castle from the British royal family for £20 million.

The misinformation was posted and shared by multiple influential nationalist bloggers as well as Russia’s state media RT’s Weibo account. Since Moscow’s invasion of its western neighbor was launched in early 2022, Chinese social media platforms have been filled with pro-Russia or Russia-originated false claims and conspiracy theories, some of which were endorsed by Beijing.

But less than 20 hours after RT posted the misinformation about Zelenskyy, the post was attached by Weibo with a note. The note debunked the misinformation, revealing that the claim came from a recently established website called The London Crier with suspicious background.

This is a rare example of a Chinese social media platform fact checking a Russian state media post. It is part of Weibo’s latest effort to regulate misinformation on the site. The new feature is called “side note” (附注) and was initially rolled out in August last year. It allows qualified users to submit fact-checking notes of others’ posts to Weibo to be reviewed. Once a note is approved, it would appear under the targeted post and a green tag would be added to the top of the post.

In the past couple of months, “side notes” have been added to posts from high profile Weibo bloggers and foreign government-backed accounts including RT and the US Embassy in China. Weibo has also tried to appear neutral when deciding what kind of misinformation to fact-check. False claims made by both liberal and nationalist influencers and bloggers were debunked.

But the feature has also been repeatedly used to promote Beijing’s talking points on international issues. And accounts run by Chinese government and state media have so far not been subject to fact-checking.

Weibo’s version of Community Note

In July 2023, China’s internet regulator released a new regulation, telling social media companies to crack down on false information posted by self-media accounts.

“‘Personal media’ that create and publish rumors, stir up hot societal topics or matrix [linked cross-platform] publish and transmit illegal or negative information, creating a vile impact are all to be closed, included in the platform database of blacklisted accounts, and reported to the internet information departments,” a memo from Central Cyberspace Administration of China wrote.

A month later, Weibo, one of China’s biggest social media apps with a focus on news and current issues, came out with the “side note” feature. Like the Community Note function on X, formerly known as Twitter, “side note” lets qualified users to take on the job of fact-checking. Unlike Community Note, where other qualified users get to vote on submitted notes, Weibo gets to approve or reject them.

According to Weibo, qualified users are selected from those with verified identity or high Weibo credit scores. Weibo says it’s gradually expanding the feature to include more users.

Aside from fact-checking, “side note” can also be used to add context to a post or provide information about the original creator of the content. Those mentioned or accused in a post can submit their responses through “side note” as well.

As many as three notes can be added to a post.

US Embassy targeted by “side note”

The “side note” feature has been repeatedly used by some to regurgitate Beijing’s talking points on international issues involving China.

Since January, the US Embassy in China has been tagged at least three times with “side notes”.

Two notes were added to a post detailing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s expressed concerns about China’s religious freedom. One of the notes accused Blinken of having “no regard for facts”. The other listed data on religious hate crimes that took place in the US in 2022.

In February, the US embassy account announced that 17 Chinese companies had been added to US Commerce Department’s entity list for helping Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. A “side note” of a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson’s public remarks was added to the post. In her remarks, spokeswoman Mao Ning denied accusations of China’s involvement in the war.

Last month, the US embassy released a statement from the State Department condemning Beijing after China’s coast guard vessels collided with its Philippine counterpart’s ships in the disputed South China Sea that injured four Filipino crew members. The statement called on China to follow the 2016 arbitration ruling made by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a non-UN intergovernmental organization in The Hague, Netherlands. The court ruled in favor of the Philippines over China.

In a “side note” that appeared under the embassy post, Shen Yi, a prominent Chinese international relations professor with a strong nationalistic leaning, refuted the post, saying that China had excluded itself from the compulsory arbitration provisions when it ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, so China does not have to accept the ruling.

Shen went on in the note to accuse the US of spreading misinformation on multiple “global social media platforms” to “smear China’s national image”.

Chinese government accounts immune to “side note”

Most posts tagged with “side notes” were made by influencers and bloggers.

Responding to a post criticizing the socialist system for causing famines in North Korea and Cuba, a note was added saying that the famines were caused by US sanctions.

Debunking the misinformation that a Ukrainian captain was responsible for crashing his ship into a Maryland bridge, a note correctly stated that the captain was from India.

Posts made by nationalist bloggers have also been targeted by “side note”. Shu Chang, who runs the popular account Guyan Muchan (孤烟暮蝉), posted last week that school children in the US have to learn how to use “bullet-proof board”, showing a picture of kids wearing body sized orange-colored pads and bending over on the floor. A “side note” was added, clarifying that the photos were from an exercise of self-protection during hurricanes.

Shu was one of the nationalist bloggers endorsed by Beijing a couple of years ago. An article of hers preaching her effort to propagate government policies to ordinary netizens was published by the Central Cyberspace Administration of China. In recent years, nationalist bloggers like Shu have become some of the most traffic-drawing opinion leaders on Weibo.

Eric Liu, who analyzes Chinese censorship at China Digital Times, says one shouldn’t read too much into Shu’s post being fact-checked by Weibo.

“A lot of her stuff isn’t state narratives. She sensationalized it herself,” Liu said to me for a VOA Chinese story. “Weibo doesn’t really have to protect her. Plus, (fact-checking her posts) adds to the side note feature’s credibility.”

Liu, who worked as a censor for Weibo and other Chinese internet companies before moving to the US, pointed out that under the surface of the purported neutrality, “side note” has not been used to fact-check government accounts or false information pushed by state media like the conspiracy theory that the US was potentially making bioweapons in Ukraine, which originated in Russia but was endorsed by Beijing.

In a November post, Weibo thanked users who took part in submitting “side notes”.

“Ever since ‘side note’ went online, every ‘side noter’s active participation has effectively lowered the negative impact of controversial content and biased information, helping all users access information that’s truer and more comprehensive,” the post wrote.

But Liu doesn’t think of “side note” as a feature that truly gives users the power to regulate speech on the platform because Weibo remains the final arbitrator of what notes can be added to what posts.

“Weibo’s side note isn’t something that netizens can fully edit as it’s still user generated content,” he said. “In the end, it still needs to be reviewed by censors.”