FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1 April 2021
Contact:
Dechen Kelden | +1-732-822-2444 | DechenKelden@studentsforafreetibet.org
Jacob Kessler | +1-516-776-6472 | Jacob@studentsforafreetibet.org
SFT PARTNERS WITH MOMENTUM TO RAISE MONEY OFF CHINESE GOVERNMENT TWEETS
NEW YORK, April 1st—Today, Students for a Free Tibet launched Tweets for Tibet, an innovative campaign which forces the Chinese government to help raise money for SFT’s campaigns for freedom and human rights in Tibet.
After seventy years of failed attempts to distort the history and truth about Tibet, this year the Chinese government is stepping up its propaganda with the so-called seventieth anniversary of the “Peaceful Liberation of Tibet.” In reality, it has been seventy years of Tibet’s brutal occupation, cultural erasure, and courageous Tibetan resistance.
Twitter has become one of the Chinese government’s favorite tools it uses to spew lies about the reality of what’s happening in Tibet. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Twitter account (MFA_China) has more than a quarter of a million followers and regularly tweets egregious lies about Tibet, as well as statements from its spokespeople (Hua Chunying and Zhao Lijian). To combat this propaganda and fight back against the CCP’s nefarious online activity, SFT has enabled our supporters to automatically donate every time the MFA sends a tweet.
SFT has partnered with Momentum, an innovative start-up, to create Tweets for Tibet. Momentum has previously launched the highly successful Defeat by Tweet, a similar campaign which raised millions of dollars from Donald Trump’s tweets. Thanks to this partnership, every tweet China’s MFA sends will help raise money for human rights campaigns in Tibet.
“Since coming into power, Xi Jinping has prioritized spreading global propaganda about his government’s numerous human rights violations. On Twitter, Chinese government accounts try to obfuscate the truth of a very simple issue – the CCP is illegally occupying Tibet and committing egregious human rights violations there. Tweets for Tibet is a creative way to force the Chinese government to support the global Tibet movement and for SFT to shine a light on the Chinese government’s sinister propaganda on social media.”
SFT Executive Director, Dorjee Tseten:
“With Tweets for Tibet, my hope is that the Chinese government will realize that their propaganda will not go unchallenged and has a price. I want to be part of the last generation of Tibetans who needs to fight for our homeland, and this initiative as well as our work at Students for a Free Tibet is making that possible.”
SFT Development Director, Dechen Kelden: