Since @radiosweden's report into the MEWAS FB group, the debate has deteriorated markedly. Any criticism, no matter how measured, is now being framed as 'MEWAS propaganda'—not just by trolls (although plenty of that as well) but by people in positions of authority and trust. 1/

People are now having fever dreams of MEWAS being a Chinese or Russian foreign influence operation. This of course extends to all critics, whether related to MEWAS or not, thus rendering any criticism the machinations of hostile foreign forces. 2/

Yes, it is overwhelmingly ironic that the people warning about conspiracy theories are also the same ones weaving completely bizarre conspiracy theories themselves about foreign forces infiltrating a small private FB group to bring down Swedish democracy. 3/

. @JPamment has explicitly said that he does not think MEWAS is associated with foreign influence. And @radiosweden agrees, but does not feel like it has any responsibility for how others have interpreted and used their reporting. 4/

This is where I would respectfully disagree. From both a media and research ethics perspective, I think that the people involved in this report do have a responsibility to set the record straight if it is being misinterpreted and misrepresented. 5/

I think the responsibility to correct the record is particularly obvious in this case, where a completely unfounded and false narrative has emerged and been repeated by media and authority figures. 6/ https://twitter.com/NDLoubere/status/1370011101975490561

The more recent unfounded accusations of malicious foreign influence also has the potential to feed into xenophobia and violence, that is already on the rise. 7/ https://time.com/5947862/anti-asian-attacks-rising-worldwide/

Framing criticism of authority as subversive and linked to hostile foreign forces is a dark, dangerous road to go down. It is what allowed the emergence of McCarthyism in the US, and it is right out of the playbook of authoritarian regimes.

It needs to be resisted. 8/

For a good example of where the road leads, I encourage people to read about the life of Owen Lattimore, who was the founding professor of Chinese Studies at Leeds after getting blacklisted and hounded out of Johns Hopkins due to McCarthy. 9/ https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/east-asian-studies/doc/east-asian-studies-leeds-history/page/3

And for a contemporary example of how the Chinese government utilises the discourse of 'hostile foreign forces' to persecute and silence critical voices, I suggest this harrowing read. 10/ https://madeinchinajournal.com/2020/12/23/inciting-subversion-by-association-120-days-in-detention/