I get up to 1,000 emails a day. For the most part they are sent by special interests or just spam. But, I do subscribe to lots of web sites, newsletters, blogs and other informational media. One of them is NewsBreak. Sadly, by omission they leave out the most importantly part of their service—they are controlled by the Communist Party of China.
“NewsBreak is a privately owned company with offices in Mountain View, California, along with Beijing and Shanghai. It bills itself as “all things local” for American readers, but one of its primary backers is Beijing-based IDG Capital.
Never heard of it? Let me catch you up. In February, the Pentagon added IDG Capital to a list of Chinese companies said to be working directly with Beijing’s military.”
They need to put a warning note, like tobacco products, “the contents of this newsletter is harmful to your health and your nation and freedom”. At a minimum it should be noted who owns them. What do you think?
This might be worse than TikTok
Kim Kommando, 6/7/24 https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/use-the-newsbreak-app-delete-it-here-s-why/ar-BB1nNCyY
My husband, Barry, is a total news junkie. He has all the major news apps on his phone. That’s why this story stopped me in my tracks. NewsBreak, the most downloaded news app in the U.S., with more than 50 million readers per month, has strong ties to Communist China.
A Reuters investigation shows the NewsBreak app is also packed with inaccurate stories (including some that appear to be totally made up by AI), content stolen from legit sources and fake bylines. This is bad, people.
Join the party
NewsBreak is a privately owned company with offices in Mountain View, California, along with Beijing and Shanghai. It bills itself as “all things local” for American readers, but one of its primary backers is Beijing-based IDG Capital.
Never heard of it? Let me catch you up. In February, the Pentagon added IDG Capital to a list of Chinese companies said to be working directly with Beijing’s military.
Def not the write stuff
NewsBreak republishes news from sources like Reuters, Fox, the Associated Press and CNN. They used to republish my content and let me tell you, the traffic from it to my website was huge. NewsBreak stopped sharing my stuff when I started writing negatively about apps with ties to China. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
The rest of NewsBreak’s content is “written” by AI, with facts scraped from press releases and sites around the web. All this happens where half their staff works (about 200 people) — in their China-based offices. Their algorithm isn’t just choosing what stories make it in the app, by the way; it’s also influencing the angles of the coverage.
That’s a huge problem. When the parent company has a political agenda (i.e., China wants to destroy our commerce and influence votes), that trickles down into what you read.
When news is the money machine
Like most apps, NewsBreak makes bank by showing you ads. The more often you use the app, the more ads you’ll see — and the more money they make. That means the whole goal is to publish stories that keep you coming back.
That’s where things get messy. Take a story they published in December: “Christmas Day Tragedy Strikes Bridgeton, New Jersey Amid Rising Gun Violence in Small Towns.” Wow, I bet most of us would click on that. The problem? The shooting never happened.
In another instance, NewsBreak published bogus health clinic details, pointing homeless folks to a nonexistent massage foot service instead.
What should you do now?
Plain and simple, stop using NewsBreak. If you insist, at least put it on a phone that’s not tied to all the rest of your data and logged into all your personal and/or work accounts.
Now, if you’re concerned about the Chinese military having access to your info, there’s one thing to do: Perform a factory reset on your phone. I know, it’s an annoying process, but it’s the one way to be sure all the code and trackers you downloaded are wiped away.
🖐️ Have friends or family that use NewsBreak? Share this story so they know about its agenda and ties to China, too.
