Soft power clashes? China in platform geopolitics

This chapter aims to reconstruct the geopolitical tension characterising the relationship between online platforms and political environments. In recent years, online platforms have become an essential space for pursuing political activities. Hence, states have moved to online platforms for many activities they used to practise offline while using the same platforms as soft power spreaders. The transfer of soft power actions online reveals latent conflicts or transforms itself into a conflictual element, inscribed along the lines of publicity and privatisation that characterise diplomatic efforts in private spaces. This resettlement of soft power functions proposes geopolitical fractures configured as conflictual relations or hostilities. Actions like the information operations promoted by the Chinese government on the micro-blogging platform Twitter will be illustrated to exemplify how the governance of platforms is intertwined with states’ interests.