FBI Uses Facebook Ads to Look for Chinese Speakers in the US that Experienced Any Misdoings by China's Government
Per Axios
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is using Facebook ads to announce that they are looking for Chinese speakers in the US that have experienced wrongdoings by actors in the Chinese government. The ads are directed specifically to US residents and Chinese intelligence officers.
The ad specifies that they are looking for Chinese-speaking individuals that have experienced being digitally stalked or harassed. Specifically, individuals that have experienced wrongdoing by "malicious Chinese government actors," or in short, victims of cyberstalking and others by the Chinese government.
The FBI ads were in Mandarin and directly targeted Facebook users in Philadelphia, urging victims to directly contact the bureau's field office in the state, highlighting the word "repression."
"You may be a victim of transnational repression by the Chinese government,"
To be more specific, the FBI's scope of harassment is directed towards WeChat, a popular Chines social media platform. The report notes that there hasn't been any explanation for why the ads were directly targeted toward Philadelphia.
China recently removed over a thousand accounts on another popular Chinese social media platform, Weibo, citing over 13,000 violations.
Although no direct explanation was given regarding why there were ads for Philadelphia specifically, the FBI gave a statement sharing that they decided to deal with transnational threat issues. This comes at a time when a special committee is being planned to investigate the wrongdoings of multiple government agencies like the FBI, DOJ, and CIA.
FBI: "Many victims are not aware transnational repression is illegal. As a result, the FBI strives to educate communities about TNR, the methods used, and how to report to the FBI."
The ads by the FBI came months after different occasions last year, like the DOJ's decision in October of 2022 to charge 13 individuals for allegedly acting on behalf of Chinese security officials. These include incidents against Chinese fugitives in the US.
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