China reportedly censored Vice President Mike Pence but not California Sen. Kamala Harris during the vice presidential debate on Wednesday.
“China censored Pence’s comments on China,” Canada’s Globe and Mail Beijing Correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe reported. “Signal returned when Harris began talking again.”
China censored Pence’s comments on China. Signal returned when Harris began talking again. pic.twitter.com/0VEMAqDA95
— Nathan VanderKlippe (@nvanderklippe) October 8, 2020
What it looks like when China censors a vice-presidential debate after a question about China is asked – and then lifts the blackout when conversation appears set to move on. pic.twitter.com/JgV5yEq7JU
— Nathan VanderKlippe (@nvanderklippe) October 8, 2020
The CNN feed in China the moment debate turned to China. pic.twitter.com/GuhqTDaEda
— Nathan VanderKlippe (@nvanderklippe) October 8, 2020
Here’s the segment that was subject to Chinese suppresion:
The censorship comes a month after reporting from the U.S. intelligence community accused China and Iran of attempting to undermine the incumbent president’s re-election chances in hopes of a Joe Biden presidency. The Russians, on the other hand, are attempting to “denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment.’”
“Ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections, foreign states will continue to use covert and overt influence measures in their attempts to sway U.S. voters’ preferences and perspectives, shift U.S. policies, increase discord in the United States, and undermine the American people’s confidence in our democratic process,” said National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina in August. “They may also seek to compromise our election infrastructure for a range of possible purposes, such as interfering with the voting process, stealing sensitive data, or calling into question the validity of the election results. However, it would be difficult for our adversaries to interfere with or manipulate voting results at scale.”
While the Russians did attempt to interfere in the 2016 elections, it did so by purchasing between $200,000 and $300,000 worth of Facebook ads with the primary goal of sowing division and “undermin[ing] public faith in the U.S. democratic process.”
