Activist group uses Chinese propaganda machine to raise money

By Choekyi Lhamo

DHARAMSHALA, Apr. 2: Activist group, Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) on Thursday launched an innovative campaign, partnered with Momentum, a start up that amasses donation for every tweet from the Chinese government’s official outlet. The campaign overturns Chinese propaganda machine to help raise money for SFT’s campaigns advocating freedom and human rights in Tibet. Momentum successfully launched the highly successful Defeat by Tweet, a similar campaign which raised millions of dollars from Donald Trump’s tweets.

“With Tweets for Tibet, my hope is that the Chinese government will realize that their propaganda will not go unchallenged and has a price. I want to be part of the last generation of Tibetans who needs to fight for our homeland, and this initiative as well as our work at Students for a Free Tibet is making that possible,” noted SFT Development Director Dechen Kelden in the press release.

SFT will enable supporters to automatically donate every time China’s Ministry of Affairs Twitter account (MFA_China) “tweets egregious lies about Tibet, as well as statements from its spokespeople (Hua Chunying and Zhao Lijian).” The group said that this campaign comes at a time when the Chinese government blatantly celebrates the seventieth anniversary of the ‘Peaceful Liberation of Tibet’. “To combat this propaganda and fight back against the CCP’s nefarious online activity, SFT has enabled our supporters to automatically donate every time the MFA sends a tweet,” further read the statement.

SFT Executive Director Dorjee Tseten said in the press release on Thursday, “Since coming into power, Xi Jinping has prioritized spreading global propaganda about his government’s numerous human rights violations. On Twitter, Chinese government accounts try to obfuscate the truth of a very simple issue – the CCP is illegally occupying Tibet and committing egregious human rights violations there. Tweets for Tibet is a creative way to force the Chinese government to support the global Tibet movement and for SFT to shine a light on the Chinese government’s sinister propaganda on social media.”