"It was an ordinary work-from-home day in July 2020 when my coauthor and I published an article about affirmative action for Justice Patch, a then-newly launched WeChat public account, which later became a Chinese-language social justice news website. Our goal was to debunk a widely circulated falsehood that affirmative action is a quota system and that Chinese Americans would lose 50 percent of college admission slots as a result. We also aimed to provide historical context to this complex and often misunderstood issue."
"What happened next shocked us. Within weeks, both my coauthor and I were targets of coordinated online harassment. Angry users opposed to affirmative action dug up our personal details, labeled us traitors to the community, and spread false claims about our motivations. We knew this topic was controversial. The Atlantic had reported in 2018 on how WeChat helped organize Chinese American opposition to affirmative action. But we didn't anticipate how vicious the backlash would be."
In July 2020 a Chinese-language social justice outlet posted material debunking a false claim that affirmative action functions as a quota reducing Chinese American college admissions by 50 percent. The post sought to correct misconceptions and provide historical context. The individuals behind the post became targets of coordinated online harassment; opponents exposed personal details, labeled them traitors, and spread new false claims about motivations. Conspiracies and false narratives, largely from the political right, now dominate many Chinese-language platforms, making accurate in-language information hard to find. WeChat, used by over three million Chinese Americans, has become a primary news source and a vector for both community communication and disinformation.
Read at Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
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