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'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've invaded china and declared victory, like they do in other parts of the social media universe. 3/6

With china's internet even if india's superpower social media troll army registered on china social media like weibo, they wouldn't succeed, because they don'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