Scholars who studied propaganda found that some social media account articles had a clear "anti-liberal tone", many of which were closely related to government relationship in China.
These articles criticize Australia for participating in five-eye alliance.
The researchers said there was little evidence in the data they collected that Bill Shorton and Labour had been attacked, but elsewhere in the social app there had been attacks on Labour and Schotton.
The results of the survey were an essay written by Dr. Mike Jason (Michael Jensen), Dr. Chen Zhijie (Titus Chen) and Tom Hill (Tom Sear), researchers on free online publicity. The essay will be submitted today to (Safeguarding Australia Summit)., the protection Australia summit in Canberra
"our evidence suggests that those accounts that are more closely linked to government in China have a clear anti-liberal (government) tone," said Dr. Jason, a senior researcher at the Institute of Management and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra.
During the five-month period from November 2018 to March 2019, the researchers analyzed Australia-related content in the 47 most visited WeChat public accounts in mainland China. Twenty-nine of the 47 accounts are in line with the Chinese Communist Party.
The researchers studied a total of 2057 Australian-related articles posted by these accounts.
"close to China?"
The three scholars said the social app articles were clearly biased against Liberal government.
"the top topic in the Australian article is criticism of Liberal government and especially`s criticism of Scott Morrison," Dr. Jason said.
An article in February ridiculed Prime Minister Morrison for joining the social app. Before the election began
"there was a country that was kicked in the head by kangaroos and now wants to get close to us," wrote an article in Iron Blood military, a commercial media website.
The site, which is 1.5% owned by Chinese state media, commented on Morrison`s timing of joining social app.
On January 28, the Australian media, the Sydney Morning Herald, quoted Australian experts as saying that the social app used by the Chinese could be used by the Chinese government to interfere in Australia`s general election. Just four days later, on February 1, Australian Prime Minister Morrison unbelievably opened an official social app account. "
"what Australian Prime Minister Morrison did was to win the support of Chinese Australians."
Journalist contacted Prime Minister Morrison`s office for comment. Morrison`s office said: "We have nothing to add."
The researchers said there was little evidence that Bill Shorton and Labour had been attacked in the data they collected.
This may be related to the Chinese policy of the previous Liberal government, or the Chinese Communist Party does not want to mention that other countries actually have opposition parties.
The researchers looked at something different from the scanic propaganda for Australian Chinese voters spread across the socialapp group.
However, some anti-Liberal government promotional materials from China may be shared in a closed social app group that researchers cannot detect.
The social app data, collected by the researchers over a period of five months, began after Turnbull`s alliance government angered China`s government and ahead of Prime Minister Morrison`s announcement of the election. Turnbull angered China`s government at the time of banning Huawei from participating in Australia`s 5G network and submitting a bill on foreign intervention.
The Global Times is a state-run tabloids in China. In this article, they criticize Prime Minister Morrison`s alleged sexist remarks.
Dr. Chen Zhijie, an associate professor at TW National Sun Yat-sen University, said the data they collected included a series of criticisms of Liberal Party government.
"[Australia] Liberal Party government has come under fire for standing with government in the United States and joining five-eye alliance."
The five-eye alliance is an intelligence sharing alliance made up of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
"Australia`s government has been criticized for its so-called against China immigration policy, especially wealthy immigrants involved in Australian politics [and] the way the media described the Huang Xiangmo incident," Dr. Chen said.
"I don`t think these social app criticisms against Australia`s government have anything to do with the upcoming general election. It was there in October or November last year.
``The criticism was directed at Liberal and Liberal government and its leadership. So it was first directed at Turnbull, and when he stepped down, it aimed at Morrison. ``
One of the authors of the essay, Tom Hill (Tom Sear), an industry researcher at the University of New South Wales network project (UNSW Canberra Cyber) in Canberra, said: These social app articles mention that "five eyes alliance" may be part of China`s manipulation of public opinion.
"breaking the unity of the five-eye alliance may be the strategy of China`s government, and Australia is vulnerable because of the asymmetrical relationship between our economic partners and our strategic partners," he said.
Mr Hill questions whether, social app, like Huawei, will soon be subject to stricter Australian scrutiny.
"it`s not necessarily about control, but we need to start talking about it," he said.
"in an era of continuous online conflict, a democracy like Australia needs to think very seriously about how we should work with not only social app but also all social media as a society."
