If Then

China’s Cyberwar Against Hong Kong

There’s no “great firewall” in Hong Kong, so Beijing officials are resorting to fake news campaigns and cyberattacks to foil protesters.

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About the Show

If Then is a show about technology, society, and power. Each week, the hosts take you on a lively tour of the tech news that actually matters, from fake news in your Facebook feed to the algorithms that want your job to the Uber drivers who want a job with benefits. With news-making interviews of key tech-industry figures, fascinating academics, and top tech journalists, we explore not only how the technology that’s shaping our world works, but the ideas, ideologies, incentives, and biases that underlie it.

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Host

  • Aaron Mak writes about technology for Slate.

Episode Notes

In this episode Aaron Mak learns about all the ways China is using cyberwarfare to disrupt the efforts of protesters in Hong Kong. His guest is Nick Frisch, a fellow at Yale’s Information Society Project and a scholar of media and technology in the Chinese-speaking world. Frisch was recently in Hong Kong as a fellow at the Journalism and Media Studies Center at Hong Kong University.

After the interview, Shannon Palus joins the show for this week’s edition of Don’t Close My Tabs.

Stories discussed on the show: 

“8chan Is a Normal Part of Mass Shootings Now,” Slate

“Fueling the Hong Kong Protests: A World of Pop-Culture Memes,” New York Times

Podcast production by Cameron Drews.

If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com.

If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.