Chinese-language influencers who mostly post lifestyle content are interviewing election candidates on the social media app Rednote, allowing politicians to bypass an apparent “shadow ban” on campaigning by the app and reach a disengaged but vital audience.
The interviews with influencers who usually post about food, real estate and shopping have been published on a platform that is not actively monitored by the Australian Electoral Commission due to Rednote’s scale and the commission’s resources.
Scott Yung, the Liberal candidate for the ultra-marginal Sydney seat of Bennelong, where almost one-third of residents have Chinese ancestry, has featured in multiple interviews shared by Mandarin-speaking influencers on Rednote in recent weeks.
The influencer Lankey Liu, who runs the Sydney Mama Lankey account that usually posts about luxury real estate, introduced her 11,000 followers to “this legendary young Chinese-Australian, Scott Yung”.
Yung noted his personal connection to the former Liberal prime minister John Howard, who held Bennelong for more than 30 years. He referred to this during a separate interview with the “Sydney shop exploration” video blogger, who has more than 10,000 followers and usually posts cooking videos or shop reviews.
“Howard taught me everyone deserves respect, regardless of your background,” Yung said in one interview.
Images of Yung and Howard shaking hands were imposed on videos. The candidate spoke about Howard asking for his help as a translator shortly before the 2013 election. The former prime minister headlined a three-course budget night dinner to raise money for Yung’s campaign.
The migration agent Min Li introduced Yung to her WeChat followers as “a good friend of mine”. They talked about small business, before she joked about his Mandarin improving. An earlier video uploaded by Li, now deleted, showed Peter Dutton responding to her inquiry about the golden ticket visa, saying he would restore the controversial scheme.
While political campaigning is discouraged by Rednote, some users are endorsing candidates. Rednote users have posted pictures of Yung with the caption “big praise for him”. Others have shared videos saying “wow the Liberals candidate this year is so outgoing”.
Liu, who also shared a separate interview with the independent candidate for Bradfield, Andy Yin, and the Liberal candidate for Reid, Grange Chung, said she had not been paid for the content. She said she approached the candidates because they were both members of the Chinese community.
Yung was contacted for comment.
An Australian Electoral Commission spokesperson said that while it didn’t proactively monitor Rednote, it was able to “view the platform when needed”. There is no suggestion the interviewers, candidates or politicians who are using Rednote are in breach of any rules.
‘They can’t find me. It’s been restricted’
While Yung’s traction on Rednote appears to have increased the Labor MP for Bennelong, Jerome Laxale, says his Rednote account appears to have been subject to “a shadow ban” along with other federal MPs across the political spectrum. Laxale won Bennelong with a 0.1% margin.
“When they search for my account, they can’t find me,” Laxale said. “It’s been restricted. But if someone writes a post with my name in it, that will still appear in searches.”
Yung’s account also could not be found when using the search function on Rednote.
REcapture, a group of Australian researchers based at major universities who specialise in Rednote, said this was because the platform was designed and regulated to limit political discussion. It instead promotes “style driven content that links social status to e-commerce”.
“Having lifestyle influencers interact with politicians or endorse political content seems to be a way around how Rednote audiences – and its platform owner – decide what content is desired on the platform,” the group said in a statement.
“Rednote is governed by People’s Republic of China policies around what can be shared. That clearly lays out a culturally ‘China First’ approach, if you will, to content”. Rednote has been approached for comment.
Laxale did not criticise Yung’s social media strategy and said “that is a matter for him”. He said he had previously engaged with an influencer on the platform and was continuing to post, despite limited engagement due to content restrictions.
The Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, who regularly uses Rednote to communicate with a sizable Chinese-Australian population in his seat of Menzies, has also reported an apparent shadow ban on his content.
The REcapture researchers said many Australian politicians were “stepping into a platform they don’t understand very well and trying to use it for something it is not designed to do”.
“Nevertheless, some politicians try to work around the constraints they’ve discovered.”
Politicians leverage Rednote to reach key voters
The engagement of high-profile Chinese-Australians on Rednote reflects the political importance of this community in marginal electorates and a broader push to connect with disengaged voters across the country.
A 2022 review of the Liberal party’s election defeat raised serious concerns about how the party was engaging with the community and the impact of the Morrison government’s hawkish approach to China. Yung made no reference to Morrison in any of his interviews.
The review also found that in the top 15 seats by Chinese ancestry, the two-party preferred swing against the Liberals was 6.6% compared with 3.7% in other seats. This is one reason why politicians such as Laxale and Wolahan have been eager to regularly communicate with followers on Rednote.
Sukhmani Khorana, an associate professor at University of NSW, said focus group research had shown many Chinese-Australians had turned away from traditional news in recent years.
“There was a lot of disenchantment with Australian national media, commercial and public sector media, about how their country of origin was being represented,” Khorana said. “That has led to a general lack of engagement with the media and a lower level of trust.”
“A lot of politicians and political parties are obviously leveraging the popularity of Rednote in a variety of ways at the moment.”
The cooperation with Chinese language influences also matches a broader, bipartisan push by politicians to reach disengaged voters through popular podcasts and social media pages. The prime minister, the opposition leader and the leader of the Greens have all sat down with non-political influencers or podcasts in recent weeks.
