Washington —

A funny thing happened this month when a report claiming that Ukrainian President Zelensky had secretly purchased a $24 million castle from the British royal family went viral on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

A fake news feature on the platform debunked it as misinformation.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Chinese social media platforms have been flooded with pro-Russian false claims and conspiracy theories, some of which have been endorsed by the Chinese government.

Influential Chinese nationalist blogger and Russian state media RT, Frequently posts and spreads misinformation on Weibo.

Less than 20 hours after RT posted misinformation about Zelensky, Weibo Fact-checking instructions are included with the post.

Public criticism of Russian state media is rare in China, but the fact-checking feature is part of Weibo’s latest effort to police misinformation on the site.

Last August, Weibo launched a feature called “side bets.” Side Notes allows qualified users to submit fact-checking annotations on other people’s posts for Weibo review.

Over the past few months, users have added marginalia to posts by prominent Weibo bloggers and foreign government-backed accounts, including RT and the U.S. Embassy in China.

Weibo attempts to appear neutral when deciding which misinformation to fact-check, debunking false claims from liberal and nationalist influencers.

But it also uses the feature to push Beijing’s talking points on international issues. So far, Chinese government and state media accounts have not been subject to any fact checks.

Weibo version of community notes

In July 2023, China’s internet regulator asked social media companies to crack down on false information.

‘Personal media’ that creates, publishes rumors, and incites social hot topics or matrix [linked cross-platform] Anyone who publishes or disseminates illegal or negative information and causes adverse effects will be shut down, included in the platform account blacklist, and reported to the cyberspace department. ” memorandum From the Cyberspace Administration of China.

A month later, Weibo, one of China’s largest social media apps focused on news and current affairs, launched a sidenote feature.

Like the community annotation function on

Other U.S. social media companies offer similar features. Facebook and Instagram offer “Community Standards” and “Community Guidelines” respectively, which flag posts containing false information.

But unlike these companies Weibo decides for itself Which posts remain the same.

The company said it selects qualified users from those with verified identities or high Weibo credit scores and gradually expands the feature to include more users.

Side note on US Embassy

Posts from the U.S. Embassy in China have been tagged with comments at least three times since January.

A post detailing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s concerns about religious freedom in China received two comments, including one accusing Blinken of “Without regard to the facts.”

A February post sanctioning 17 Chinese companies for helping Russia’s war in Ukraine got a clarification, including from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson speaks publicly.

A post last month condemning Beijing for a collision between Chinese and Philippine Coast Guard vessels got a side note Shen Yi, A well-known Chinese international relations professor with strong nationalist tendencies.

In the note, Shen accused the United States of spreading misinformation on multiple “global social media platforms” to “smear China’s national image.”

Chinese government account immunity

Most of the posts tagged with sidenotes belong to influencers, including nationalist bloggers.

For example, Shu Chang, who runs the popular nationalist account Guyan Muchan, saw a post last week with a side note claiming that American elementary school students must learn how to use “bulletproof panels” in the classroom.this side note To clarify these photos are from a hurricane self-protection drill.

In recent years, nationalist bloggers like Shu have become some of the most traffic-generating opinion leaders on Weibo.

Eric Liu, who analyzes China’s censorship at China Digital Times, said people shouldn’t read too much into Weibo’s fact-checking of Shu’s posts.

“A lot of her stuff is not a national narrative. She hypes it up herself,” Liu told VOA. “There is actually no need for Weibo to protect her. Moreover, [fact-checking her posts] Increased the credibility of the annotation feature. “

Liu, who worked as a censor for Weibo and other Chinese internet companies before moving to the United States, noted that Weibo does not use sidebars to verify disinformation from government accounts or state media.

In a Weibo post in November Thank you user Used to submit notes.

“Since the launch of “Bianzhu”, the active participation of every “Bianzhu” person has effectively reduced the negative impact of controversial content and biased information, helping all users obtain more authentic and comprehensive information.”

But Liu doesn’t think side-notes are a feature that truly gives users the power to regulate speech on the platform, because Weibo is still the final arbiter of which posts can have which comments.

“Marginal comments on Weibo are not fully editable by netizens because it is still user-generated content,” he said. “Ultimately there will be a need for review by review agencies.”

Weibo did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

Evie Steele contributed to this report.