Chapter 4
Who or what shapes the public discourse in the attention economy? During the pandemic, Prof. Angela Rasmussen has become a rising star on Twitter, fact-checking and correcting misconceptions about the pandemic. With more than 400.000 followers, citizens trusted her, because she was a virologist who just tells it as it is. She was authentic, relatable and accessible. Her remarkable success and trajectory was however not unique in the information age. It was a sign of our changing times.
More and more, we outsource our trust to influencers instead of institutions. In theory, anybody can become an influencer. However, the attention economy is a cut-throat market, one’s competition is often millions of other compelling voices, depending on niche and platform. This can create perverse incentives to use influencers to mislead citizens for self-serving gains.
When the Trump administration's dire need to blame the pandemic on China required new narratives to distract from the scientific evidence in April of 2020, Miles Guo and Steve Bannon hatched a lucrative plan involving Dr. Li Meng Yan, a Chinese postdoc. She was supposed to come to America and they would carefully craft an image of her as a dissident-whistleblower “telling the truth” about the communist party’s intentional release of a bioweapon. A compelling shtick for credulous audiences, and lucrative beyond measure for the manipulators behind the bioweapon influencer.
Her story truly reveals the dirty secrets of the “winner-takes-all” attention economy; targeting specialized audiences and funneling vulnerable citizens into the conspiracy myth - entertainment complex.
References:
Angela Rasmussen’s follower rise:
Her follower gains were highest in the first 6 months of the pandemic (https://socialblade.com/twitter/user/angie_rasmussen/monthly), here are the search criteria for her popular tweets: (search criteria: (from:angie_rasmussen) until:2020-05-12 since:2020-01-01 min_faves:100)
Angela Rasmussen wrote an op-ed against Steve Bannon & Li Meng Yan “bioweapon” pre-prints
Rasmussen, A. L. (2021). On the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Nature Medicine, 27(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-01205-5
Mike Pence and Jared Kushner, who is in charge of the coronavirus task force?
Keith, T. (2020, April 29). For Pence, Coronavirus Task Force Is A High-Profile Assignment With Political Risk. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/29/847580759/for-pence-coronavirus-task-force-is-a-high-profile-assignment-with-political-ris
Honl-Stuenkel, L. (2020, September 25). Kushner’s shadow task force appears to violate multiple laws - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. https://www.citizensforethics.org/news/press-releases/kushners-shadow-task-force-violate-multiple-laws/
Twitch Tracker Jessirocks and other sources
jessirocks - Streamer Overview & Stats. (n.d.). TwitchTracker. https://twitchtracker.com/jessirocks
Excellent investigative reporting from the NYT about Li-Meng Yan, Steve Bannon and Miles Guo collaboration
Amy Qin, Vivian Wang and Danny Hakim (2020, November 20) “How Steve Bannon and a Chinese Billionaire Created a Right-Wing Coronavirus Media Sensation”. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/business/media/steve-bannon-china.html “Mr. Carlson asked if Dr. Yan believed Chinese officials had released the virus intentionally or by accident. Dr. Yan did not hesitate. “Of course intentionally,” she said. The clip went viral. Footage of their interview racked up at least 8.8 million views online, even though Facebook and Instagram flagged it as false information. High-profile conservatives, including Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, shared it on Twitter. When the Rev. Franklin Graham, the evangelist supporter of Mr. Trump, posted about Dr. Yan on Facebook, it became the most-shared link posted by a U.S.-based Facebook account that day.”
Miles Guo fraudulent companies and his Southern District of New York arrest for fraud
Dave Michaels, Brian Spegele (2021, September 13) Companies Tied to Chinese Exile Guo Wengui to Pay $539 Million to Settle SEC Action https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-tied-to-chinese-exile-guo-wengui-to-pay-539-million-to-settle-sec-action-11631539327?st=xye4iutkx7f08ij
Ho Wan Kwok, A/K/A “Miles Guo,” arrested for orchestrating over $1 Billion Dollar Fraud Conspiracy. (2023, March 15). https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ho-wan-kwok-aka-miles-guo-arrested-orchestrating-over-1-billion-dollar-fraud-conspiracy (Note: There was substantial inauthentic activity and paid promotion of Li-Meng Yan through Gnews and Himalaya exchange, another Guo owned outlet pushing yet more fraudulent Ponzi investment scheme. They all went in lockstep trying to amplify Li-Meng Yan and tease her new meme-papers with messages like: “Hot News: 2020-09-13 At 10 a.m., Dr. Maria interviewed Dr. Yan Limeng about the source of the coronavirus: "The virus is a man-made virus from the Wuhan biological laboratory, which was deliberately put by the Communist Party to deliberately cover up the truth "American Mayor" Giuliani even said: "The virus is a biological weapon, a terrorist attack from China." ”Dr. Yan's report is expected to be released next week. Washington DC Farm expects more truth to be revealed”)
Guo had deep ties to MAGA not only via Steve Bannon, he also bought for example congressmen like George Santos
Miles Guo also bought politician George Santos with 130.000 $ donations spread through untraceable payments in his diaspora (3,300 $ each, investigative journalists found the outlets Hark Herald found 30 of them). Santos only raised 164.000$ in total.
Sollenberger, R. (2023, July 17). George Santos’ new Max donors have strong ties to Guo Wengui. The Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/george-santos-new-max-donors-have-strong-ties-to-guo-wengui
Without this cash, it is unlikely that Santos would have been elected. In return, Santos pushed the Bioweapon myth in US congress and introduced bills to free Miles Guo after he has been indicted for 1 Billion Dollar fraud conspiracy. Representative George Santos Morning Hour floor speech. (2023, May 16). C-SPAN.org. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5070783/representative-george-santos-morning-hour-floor-speech
Fox News took up Scarlet’s disinformation and disseminated it more widely
Chakraborty, B. (2020, July 10). EXCLUSIVE: Chinese virologist accuses Beijing of coronavirus cover-up, flees Hong Kong: ’I know how they tr. . . Fox News. http://web.archive.org/web/20200912003409/https://www.foxnews.com/world/chinese-virologist-coronavirus-cover-up-flee-hong-kong-whistleblower
Biller Hemmer (FOX news) put Scarlet live on TV, watched 2,8 million times on YouTube
Fox News. (2020, July 13). Hong Kong scientist claiming China “covered up” coronavirus data speaks out [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7voTUuVT5i4 (Note how the interviewer is very careful to say “if you are right” “tell us what you believe” etc… while being totally unimpressed. It is clear that he does not believe anything Scarlet says but he has to play along)
On September 7, 2020, Dr. Yan and the influential Chinese YouTuber Ludeh met US bioweapons experts and Peter Navarro at the White House.
They spent eight hours advising senior officials and advisers to the U.S. government on the origin of Covid-19 and the CCP regime's (illegal) virus research. This was orchestrated by Steve Bannon. There are even pictures of Lu De with the former New York Major and Trump operative Rudy Giuliani in Miles Guo’s house, with Scarlet and Steve Bannon reflected in a mirror in the background.
Lu De 路德 (@ding_gang). (2020, September 7). Twitter. http://web.archive.org/web/20200913190145/https://twitter.com/ding_gang/status/1305219907764789248
National geographic on Yan report
Brouillette, M., & Renner, R. (2020, September 18). Why misinformation about COVID-19’s origins keeps going viral. Science. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/coronavirus-origins-misinformation-yan-report-fact-check-cvd
90-9-1 rule on social media
Nielsen, J. (2022, April 2). The 90-9-1 rule for participation inequality in social media and online communities. Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/participation-inequality/
No middle class in the creator economy
Jin, L. (2021, August 31). The creator economy needs a middle class. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/12/the-creator-economy-needs-a-middle-class
0,15% of whales bring in 50% of revenues, Forbes reports
Tassi, P. (2014, March 1). Why It’s scary when 0.15% mobile gamers bring in 50% of the revenue. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/03/01/why-its-scary-when-0-15-mobile-gamers-bring-in-50-of-the-revenue/
News articles as weapons for information warfare
Warzel, C. (2023, November 6). Social media broke up with news. so did readers. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/11/social-media-news-readership-decline/675890/ (“Throughout the 2010s, activists, journalists, propagandists, politicos, white nationalists, and conspiracy theorists converged in these spaces, and the platforms curdled into battlegrounds where news stories were the primary ammunition. As the researcher Michael Caulfield has written, a tragic mass shooting or even just a story about a submarine disaster became evidence to fit an ideological position—a way to attack an enemy. This toxicity made public spaces hostile to reasonable discourse and marginalized audiences.”)