Due to the U.S. ban on TikTok, a surge of foreign users has recently appeared on Rednote, another Chinese social media platform. Media reports suggest that e-commerce Multi-Channel Network (MCN) companies are mass-producing “fake foreigners,” creating fraudulent accounts en masse.
These companies’ core strategy involves closely monitoring trending posts on the platform, extracting keywords and content structures, and then mass-producing similar content. Each of their employees manages multiple accounts, generating over a dozen posts per day, handling everything from image editing to content rewriting and posting.
On Rednote, “foreigners” can easily gain thousands or even tens of thousands of followers with just a single post. Thus, many domestic Chinese MCN companies have started mass-registering “fake foreigner” accounts with Western names and profile pictures featuring Westerners’ faces. These accounts often post content stolen from real overseas users.
Users have noticed that some so-called “foreign bloggers” post English content with grammatical errors, yet their Chinese is as fluent as that of a native speaker. Some of their profile pictures also appear unnatural, with mismatched skin tones. Others blatantly repost content from foreign influencers without even removing the original watermark. Some investigations on Rednote have found that many posts – from accounts with different usernames and featuring different individuals – use identical caption templates, sometimes even failing to change the names in their self-introductions.
Source: Epoch Times, January 26, 2025
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/25/1/26/n14422251.htm