india whatsapp groups gone nuts over China. People sending elaborate screenshotted maps cut from google maps with hand-drawn borders, shared on facebook, twitter. All in the "american universe" of social media because nothing else exists in india. Compare that to china

1/6

China got their own internet there, own twitter, own facebook, own youtube, own search engine - all since 2000s. Its as much to keep the chinese in as to keep the american universe out. Its a huge asymmetric advantage, by design or by accident they& #39;ve landed upon a good idea. 2/6

imagine if the chinese were in the american universe of social media.

Millions of Indian twitter (paid or otherwise) trolls would& #39;ve invaded china and declared victory, like they do in other parts of the social media universe. 3/6

With china& #39;s internet even if india& #39;s superpower social media troll army registered on china social media like weibo, they wouldn& #39;t succeed, because they don& #39;t know chinese.

Asymmetry at work.

That asymmetry also applies to those googlemap screencaps sent on india whatsapp 4/6

Googlemaps GPS is not accurate over china and does not work. All locations over china on google maps are offset by 100s of metres, and you gotta buy a proprietary "GPS shift" algorithm from the chinese govt for your mapping app to work.

Again - big asymmetry. 5/6

Indian online troll armies will need to learn chinese en-masse and figure out chinese map offsets to get maps and borders right, and they will have to do that without chinese smart-phones. Its a difficult proposition. 6/6