Chinese government propagandists post 433 million posts last year

[Independent voter]

The common belief that they are paid 50 cents per post leads people in China to call them the Fifty Cent Party.

I wonder if Russian government posters have a nick name?

I think I've ran across a few Chinese government posters on MMO-C General Off Topic, usually when you post a thread about China.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/bu...-internet.html




China heavily censors its Internet, limiting what its people can see or say online to channels that the government can control.

But China’s managing of its message does not end there. It also taps untold masses of people to cheer for its side on online message boards and social media. The common belief that they are paid 50 cents per post leads people in China to call them the Fifty Cent Party.

A new study says those people are closer to the government than previously thought.

The study, from researchers at Harvard University, says the legions of online commenters are not all freelancers paid by the post. In fact, it says that most are government employees, preaching the principles of the Chinese Communist Party on social media while carrying out their jobs in the local tax bureau or at a county government office.

They are also incredibly prolific. The study, released this week by Gary King, Jennifer Pan and Margaret E. Roberts, estimates that the Chinese government each year fabricates and posts around 488 million social media posts in China, or about one for every 178 social media posts on Chinese commercial sites. Posts are usually written in bursts around politically sensitive events, like protests or key national political events, and are often intended to distract the public from bad news.

The study could shed light on an active but shadowy part of China’s complex system of tools used to guide online public opinion at home. Its best-known tool is the Great Firewall, the sophisticated system of Internet filters and blocks that prevents people in China from accessing Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as foreign media sources such as The New York Times.





But it has others that depend on China’s manpower and spending to manage. Prodding people to write comments online represents the Chinese Communist Party’s longstanding effort to channel public opinion, said David Bandurski, editor of the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong. “The whole premise being that the party needs to be more savvy and clever in directing the agenda,” he said.

China’s top Internet monitor, the Cyberspace Administration of China, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China’s push to polish its image at home and abroad has gained new traction under President Xi Jinping. Domestically, China has tightened Internet restrictions and limited criticism. It has also raised Mr. Xi’s profile online and aimed its digital propaganda efforts at foreign as well as domestic audiences. Chinese propaganda outlets, like the Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper, are now fixtures on social media services banned in China like Facebook and Twitter.

In some cases, that has left American companies to face uncomfortable contradictions. For example, Twitter is blocked in China and used by a large and vocal Chinese dissident community. But last month, its new China chief said on Twitter to China Central Television, China’s official broadcaster, “Let’s work together to tell great China story to the world!”

Domestically, the report found that Beijing primarily sought to guide public opinion by having commenters write posts designed to “regularly distract the public and change the subject” rather than rebut arguments against the government line.

“Distraction is a clever strategy in information control in that an argument in almost any human discussion is rarely an effective way to put an end to an opposing argument,” it said.

The effects of this strategy are amplified by highly coordinated campaigns in which bursts of messages are posted around news or events as they go viral, according to the report.

Based on a trove of leaked emails from a local Internet propaganda office in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangxi in 2013 and 2014, the report examined 43,000 confirmed government-sponsored posts and cited a number of examples of government-backed comment campaigns.





In one example, following a riot in the western region of Xinjiang in 2013, the Internet propaganda office reported posting hundreds of comments about local economic development and the China Dream, one of Mr. Xi’s propaganda initiatives emphasizing China’s rising global power.

The study also tracked the sources of almost all of the 43,000 posts back to groups and individuals from 200 different government agencies. While 20 percent came from the district Internet propaganda office, other comments came from local township governments and even further afield, from people in the district sports bureau and the district human resources bureau. The fact that most commenters are employed by the government likely allows for quick and efficient coordination, according to the report.

To determine the total number of posts in China, the researchers used their knowledge of the number of government-fabricated posts in a single county in 2013 and extrapolated how many government-sponsored posts there were per Internet user there.

The authors also theorized that the government sees its commenters as a friendlier method of opinion guidance than censorship, which frustrates many users. Commenters have “the additional advantage of enabling the government to actively control opinion without having to censor as much as they might otherwise.”

Tracking government activity has become trickier, as Chinese users shift away from social-media services that are broadly accessible to anybody. They increasingly use mobile-chat apps, like China’s WeChat, where only friends connected over the app can see one another’s posts.

[Revi]

Those headsets are so Asian.

[Wildtree]

Why are they using headsets?
And why are they playing video games instead?


Well, I guess I answered my first question with the second..

[Macaquerie]

Amateuristic China, it's really sad.
They should focus all the attention on an imaginary evil outside force, that will focus the attention away from real issues.
By doing that they could triple that amount of posts and it wouldn't even cost them anything.

It's pretty interesting to see the intersection here. Their propaganda used to be all denouncing the evils of Western capitalism and what not, and is gradually moving more toward random frivolous bullshit, whereas over in the US, we're in the process of replacing our empty calorie media with nonstop braying about Mexicans and Muslims.

[Ealyssa]

Why are they using headsets?
And why are they playing video games instead?


Well, I guess I answered my first question with the second..

Because they know the real threat, thanks to Russia.



Esport is the next battlefield.

[shadowmouse]

Hey, Hubcap, pass me the popcorn!

[Skroe]

Because they know the real threat, thanks to Russia.



Esport is the next battlefield.

10/10 well done.

[Kalis]

433 million?

Cryban and Summerdrake better pull their fingers out, Putin will not be happy to see they are slacking in comparison to the Chinese.

[primalmatter]

I don't know I have seen people post ironically here that China has good polices....

[Gheld]

I don't know I have seen people post ironically here that China has good polices....

Because they have their own little isolated fake Internet to control. No need to come here

[TrumpIsPresident]

I think I've ran across a few Chinese government posters on MMO-C General Off Topic, usually when you post a thread about China.

Well then its a good thing they don't have the power to manufacture rule violations and silence you for disagreeing with their propaganda.

[Lenonis]

50 cents per post is not bad!

[primalmatter]

50 cents per post is not bad!

Is it 50 cents god damn I could make a fortune.

Only in the mighty empire of china is such generosity possible.

[Deleted]

How much does the pro-Hillary PAC pay their internet terrorists to post shit about Sanders? Come on, I'm sure some of you here are getting paid by them.

[Airlick]

China is the best, where do I apply?

[Independent voter]

Why is the Chinese government paying their online propagandists in a currency forgin to China?

[shadowmouse]

The common belief that they are paid 50 cents per post leads people in China to call them the Fifty Cent Party.

Why is the Chinese government paying their online propagandists in a currency forgin to China?

In a way, this quote shows that the article has some problems. The supposed payment is wu mao, which is half of one RMB and so it can be considered somewhat the same as 50 cents being half of one USD. The phrase 50 Cent Party is used in English publications, but *毛党 (wǔmáo dǎng) is the Putonghua.

The article is largely old news and was probably handled better in a 2014 article: http://qz.com/311832/hacked-emails-r...ganda-machine/

The study mentioned in the NYT article may seem to add a degree of detail, but I'll leave it to others to decide how much this part sounds like good science:

To determine the total number of posts in China, the researchers used their knowledge of the number of government-fabricated posts in a single county in 2013 and extrapolated how many government-sponsored posts there were per Internet user there.

[Zogarth]

China is a great country, and the honored and profound supreme Chinese government would never ever do anything like this. Do i get my 50 cents now?

[May90]

They are doing a very poor job though. Unlike Russian, North Korean and Saudi Arabian propagandists, I don't think I've even ever met a Chinese propagandist online.

Or, based on that, they are doing a VERY good job...

[Independent voter]

Why are they using headsets?
And why are they playing video games instead?


Well, I guess I answered my first question with the second..

Probably the NY Times couldn't get access to Chinese propaganda centers so they used a stock photo of an internet café.