What should you do when a large and powerful trading partner known for its human rights abuses publicly and hypocritically admonishes you on Twitter over your own, lesser-known human rights abuses, crimes of which you are rightfully ashamed?
Do you: a) express your grievances behind closed doors, privately asking foreign leaders to remove the offending material without drawing further attention to it; b) publicly demand an official apology, labeling the callout “repugnant” and “offensive”; or c) troll them back with GIFs of their own more infamous abuses?
If you picked b) or c), you’d be in line with Australia’s loud and wounded response to an inflammatory tweet by the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s controversial spokesman Zhao Lijian.
Read more ‘How China Trolled Australia Into Publicizing Its Own War Crimes’ at slate.com
Rachel Rose Withers 