As journalists covering the Winter Olympics tread a fine line on “behaviour and speech”, one of China’s highest-profile businesses has launched an “influencer” whose dialogue is driven by sophisticated chatbot technology.

While there’s no suggestion of such intentions, the development is a reminder of the potential digital technology offers to mislead and deliver fake news.

Dong Dong, the “outspoken 22-year-old who loves winter sports” developed by the DAMO Academy research unit of ecommerce giant Alibaba – which owns Hong Hong’s South China Morning Post newspaper – has been launched as a “virtual influencer” who can “interact with audiences in an engaging manner”.

Not only will she promote merchandise in the official Olympic shop during livestreaming shows, but she can also respond to questions, present different emotions and body gestures and show-off upbeat dance moves (seen here).

All the interactions are powered by cloud-based digital technologies, Alibaba says.

Little likelihood however, that the digital persona will be putting a foot wrong, or at the same risk faced by journalists in the country Nikki Dryden says is the “world’s worst jailer of journalists” for three years running, according to the Committee to Project Journalists.

Former Olympic swimmer and journalist Dryden – now a human rights lawyer – warns in a Judith Neilson Institute post that journalists have little protection in China and are routinely jailed there.

An associate at UNSW Sydney’s Australian Human Rights Institute, she says despite the host’s assurances that IOC rules will be upheld, “who can blame athletes if they choose silence” after a Beijing Olympic official threatened that “any behaviour or speech” that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations were “subject to certain punishment”.

In 2008, Nikki Dryden (pictured) had media accreditation to cover swimming at Summer Games in Beijing, and “felt safe” as a retired Olympic swimmer.

“That is until two colleagues at Team Darfur, a human rights group committed to using the IOC’s Olympic Truce policy to raise awareness about China’s involvement with genocide in Darfur, had their visas cancelled.

“Several active athletes on Team Darfur were threatened by their NOCs to remove their name from our website, or not go the Olympics.”

She says that if China’s 2008 “coming out party to the world” felt oppressive and threatening, “2022 is about Chinese leaders flexing their domestic might.

“From internet censorship to the targeting of civil society in Hong Kong, to mass violations of human rights in Xinjiang Province, and repression in Tibet, the 2022 Olympic slogan ‘Together for a shared future’, is clearly a different message than 2008’s ‘One World, One Dream’.

“Many organisations have issued extensive safety warnings to journalists,” she says. “Human Rights Watch has also warned about China’s high-tech surveillance and the US FBI issued a warning on malicious cyber actors ahead of the Games.

China’s zero COVID-19 policy means the Olympics will happen completely isolated from the rest of China. “Not unlike other sports bubbles set up since the pandemic began, the ‘closed loop’ means journalists cannot leave the bubble to report on anything but the Games. Journalists and athletes have been warned they will have their devices and online activities monitored.”

And while the IOC has a grievance mechanism for journalists on press freedom violations, she says, “having failed to proactively protect their two most important stakeholders – athletes and journalists – she is not hopeful the IOC can properly assist if a journalist’s freedoms are curtailed.