Alternative social media like WeChat mediate English news for diaspora communities in Australia, but domestic actors take advantage of this underregulated space to create misinformation campaigns. These campaigns are contextually unique to targets and technologies. We use a critical disinformation studies lens (Kuo and Marwick 2021) to report on how the Australian WeChat economy works for misinformation producers. Findings show how misinformation adapts to Australian contexts—where tax burdens, constitutional ambiguity, and colonial threats—are translated into culturally proximate frames for Chinese speakers. Regulatory responses to these tactics are currently wanting.
About the Speaker
Luke Heemsbergen looks at where emerging technologies meet society and intervenes to unsettle assumptions and rewire potentials for our shared digital futures. He co-leads Critical Digital Infrastructures and Interfaces group at Deakin University, is a member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, and is a founder of CAVRN.org. Previously, he served at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Canada. His work on emerging tech appears in international and national media, including The New York Times, Wired, ABC Australia, and Australian Financial Review, as well as diverse academic presses. His recent book Radical Transparency and Digital Democracy is published by Emerald.
