Dissenting from China's Censorship with Jiajun Zeng | Layer Zero

Aug 30, 2022

Jiajun Zeng, a former product manager at ByteDance, shares gripping insights into content moderation in China, revealing the unique challenges faced by tech firms under strict censorship. He discusses the sophisticated mechanisms used to suppress dissent and how the public navigates these restrictions. Zeng also explores his journey in the crypto space, emphasizing Ethereum's potential as a tool for anti-censorship. He sheds light on the mixed sentiments regarding cryptocurrency in China and the optimism for decentralization as a path to freedom.

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ANECDOTE

ByteDance Content Moderation

ByteDance moderates content like spam, pornography, and violence, similar to other platforms.
Additional political rules exist for restricted countries like India and the Middle East.

INSIGHT

Political Content Moderation

Political content moderation is the key difference between Western and Chinese apps.
Chinese companies must censor political dissent to survive.

ANECDOTE

Content Moderation Army

ByteDance employed 20-30k content moderators across China to ensure high uptime.
This anti-fragile approach minimizes risks and avoids single points of failure.

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Before coming to the U.S., Jiajung Zeng lived in China and worked as a Product Manager for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. Jiajung worked specifically on the content moderation team that was heavily censored by the Chinese government.

Jiajung tells the story of how content moderation actually works in China. He shares the hoops these Chinese tech companies must go through to even operate as a business. And towards the end of the conversation, Jiajung shares the overall sentiment of the people of China on content moderation and what they do about it. Ultimately the conversation converges on the topic of Ethereum, decentralization, and crypto writ large in China.

This is a special Layer Zero as it shows a side of China many of us don’t typically get a chance to experience and it highlights the importance of crypto fundamentals.

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------ Topics Covered:

0:00 Intro 4:15 Jiajung Zeng’s Background 5:38 ByteDance Explained 8:30 ByteDance Content Moderation 11:11 Political Content Moderation 16:00 Moderation Resource Consumption 20:49 Consequences of Mistakes 22:47 Who is at Risk? 25:47 China’s Content Moderation Army 27:53 AI’s Role 31:35 Uyghurs & China 41:16 Dialect Suppression 43:53 Sentiment of the Chinese People 46:55 The Pushback 50:55 The Positives of China 53:54 Sentiment of the Future of China 57:32 Jiajung’s Ethereum Familiarity 59:47 ByteDance & Ethereum 1:01:52 Chinese People’s Thoughts on Crypto 1:03:11 China’s Crypto Scene 1:04:28 Jiajun’s Message to the Bankless Nation

------ Resources:

Jiajung Zeng https://twitter.com/zengjiajun_eth

----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.