Maker Naomi Wu is Silenced by Chinese Authorities (And Why I Blame Elon Musk)
There’s a really disturbing situation happening in China that I think it’s important everyone know about as soon as possible. The very talented maker Naomi Wu, aka Sexy Cyborg, has revealed that Ch…
Sorry, yes Elon Musk is the reason Twitter is shitting itself to death, but that doesn't make Elon the main person responsible for Naomi's problems. It's probably not even top 10. It's weird to call him out in this.
If you can't understand the article: musk is blamed for making twitter shit and abandoned. Wu was on twitter, and she said it was a platform where she could be seen and supported, and this audience was protecting her, because a famous person would not disappear without it making noise.
It is an indirect responsibility, but a big one nonetheless.
Wu’s activity on Twitter declined well before Musk took over ownership.
It's Lemmy, the sentence "and why I blame Elon Musk" is basically the unspoken rule of everything.
Now don't get me wrong, he's a POS businessman just trying to manipulate the market into a profit for himself, but if there's no reasonable way to blame him for something and it seems like you're just going "thanks Obama!" It's getting old.
Skepchick.org is Lemmy now?
Here is something really bad going on with this person who has their literal freedom threatened, but let me twist this into why this is Elons fault.
IDGAF about Elon or anything he touches, but the mental gymnastics in this are worthy of a Olympic gold medal
The argument is that by making Twitter a far right cesspool, Musk had made it more difficult for non-western dissidents to reach an international audience. Certainly arguable but not entirely wrong.
Yeah, with that headline I am not very inclined to read this.
Shame, maybe you should because while the argument is not causally linked, it's certainly something to suggest in the context of this. Especially in light of, as said in the video, the Musk-Drones are not exactly people who will provide a platform to someone like Wu. And losing Twitter as a platform is huge to her, and of course in turn this removes the audience that might have been protecting her.
Is it a bit of a stretch? Sure.
Is it entirely unpossible? Not at all, it actually sounds fairly reasonable even if it might just as well not be.
Elon sucks, but its not his fault that China disappears dissidents
Yeah, the first 2/3rds of the article covering Naomi Wu was worth a read, but that last 1/3rd....... I get her argument, but she should have left that out to focus just on Naomi.
This is something that Naomi had even talked about previously, how Western media only cared about the experience of people living in China when it could suit their narrative, and didn't want anything to do with them when it didn't.
The theory is that you can get away with a bit more in China if you have a big western audience. She had a fairly big one and that was protecting her, but the audience is fickle (made more fickle by Musk ruining Twitter) and once her audience declined, she lost that protection.
I guess the real lesson is that if you're Chinese and develop a Western audience, us that to escape China. Don't stay behind in China because your big audience is painting a target on your back, and eventually the Chinese authorities are going to ruin your life.
As an aside, did anybody else find her vibe really offputting? I liked her content, but her enormous fake boobs and skimpy outfits were a distraction from otherwise interesting content. If I found a video of hers interesting, it made me not want to share that with anybody because they'd think I was watching it because of her body. I'm all for women's empowerment, if someone wants to look and feel sexy that's great. But, with her stuff, it was so extreme that it felt like exploitation. Maybe she was exploiting herself, but it still felt icky.
No, because I'm not a 12 year old boy who freaks out every time he sees a set of tits. She can dress however she wants, it has nothing to do with the quality of her content.
As an aside, did anybody else find her vibe really offputting? I liked her content, but her enormous fake boobs and skimpy outfits were a distraction from otherwise interesting content.
indeed. I've never heard of her and seeing this I wanted to see what it's all about - one look at her youtube (not even clicking on the video, the thumbnail and the short hover clip was enough) and I decided nope, don't really care.
She released a video at some point explaining WHY she looked and dressed that way. It was an interesting PoV, and totally unrelated to her hobby as maker and influencer.
I guess the real lesson is that if you’re Chinese and develop a Western audience, us that to escape China. Don’t stay behind in China because your big audience is painting a target on your back, and eventually the Chinese authorities are going to ruin your life.
She couldn't, her SO was Uighur and couldn't get permission to leave.
I read a Twitter post of hers a few years ago where she was extremely apologetic towards China, saying that Americans listened to a lot of propaganda and so on. Now I'm starting to wonder if it was really her who made that twitter post.
I wouldn't doubt it. How many Americans apologize for our system despite the long history of continuing genocide. Overthrowing governments, occupying countries, or just funding international terrorism. How about British colonizers?
I'd still say the US is better, but only just. Naomi has seen a lot of improvement with society there in her life. I don't have the video where she went into detail handy. Or know if it is even still up. But it's worth a watch if you haven't seen it. Are things great there? No. But they are much better for many of them despite their oppressive government.
Unfortunately Naomi's S.O. is uyghur. And despite all the progress minorities like her have seen in China, uyghurs haven't. And even her mild criticism of the government over it. Brought their ire.
Nah that sounds like her
I’ve been aware of her for a long time, even before she started looking like a freak and she was always a pro-China shitheap who’d shit on the west.
Good riddance frankly. Let her enjoy her better country.
I really hope we'll see her again some time.
Authoritarian due to intrinsic insecurities always cut heads that rise a little bit above
Fuck, loved watching her content and back when Kaidi first showed up I was hoping they could just get the fuck out.
Turns out, she can't leave anyways. Damn :'(
We now understand the inherent value of a social media platform. We have yet to figure out how to build a space that doesn't hand control over to a private entity that only has profit in mind.
Sorry, we can't yet place the blame solely on the billionaires who own the platforms. We have to create safe heavens away from moneyed interests than protect and maintain them.
It's interesting to think that if Wu had more love in the West that the Chinese authorities would have been more slow to crackdown on her...
I think we all remember back in 2017 or so when the Hong Kong protests were at the forefront of everyone's mind and, still, the crackdown continued, and the resistance was crushed.
And what has China's response to the popularity of the Ukraine war been? To question its generally positive relations with Russia? No, not at all. China shores up its own front against Taiwan and its trade with Russia is growing exponentially. BRICS gets stronger.
China will not bow to popular Western opinion no matter what. Blaming Musk for this is pretty asinine.
I read the whole thing and then saw that she's continuing to prop up the same platform and same platform model she blames. Make it make sense.
Iirc MakerMuse mentioned her disappearance in a video quite a while ago. I don't understand the article well, has she resurfaced silenced or is she still missing?
Wasn't a great fan of Naomi's outfits but she made great videos. With the Amber B1 robot arm she was the only one calling out the kickstarter company was a bit sketchy and not just blind advertising it.
The post is from August, last year. I was confused as well.
