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Chinese Government Suspected of Unleashing Astroturfers Against Apple
An anonymous reader writes "A piece attacking Apple's treatment of Chinese consumers that aired on official government TV last week was followed by a wave of anti-Apple posts on Weibo (China's equivalent of Twitter) by Chinese celebrities. On the China-watching site Tea Leaf Nation, Liz Carter reports that sharp-eyed Weibo users noticed something funny about one such post from an actor and singer named Peter Ho: 'Cannot believe Apple is playing so many dirty tricks in customer service. As an Apple fan, I feel hurt...Need to post around 8:20 pm.' What was this 'need to post at 8:20 pm' business? After Weibo lit up with sarcastic tags such as #PostAround820, Ho claimed (rather unconvincingly) that someone must have hacked his account and posted the anti-Apple 'Weibo'. Mike Elgan at CultOfMac notes a parallel with the Chinese government's rough handling of Google in 2009, which led to Google's closing of its mainland operations. Google claimed that government commissioned hackers had apparently stolen search engine source code, Gmail messages and other user data. An earlier article by Elgan on Datamation notes the uneasy business relationship between Apple and China."
A lot of Chinese companies are real s**ts, and a lot of Chinese companies make their own Android handsets.
IMHO, follow the money. It will be paid for troll turf from one of the China handset makers.
Also why do you think the Chinese government is some sort of magic all seeing, all acting entity? Realistically they want to project that image, but part of the reason China is such a wild west is because the Chinese government is so corrupt and no-seeing.
That's why companies like this don't fear smear tactics. Because they can always pay a bribe and walk away.
Frankly, nothing China does surprises me anymore. Rather, I think the surprising thing is that people don't want to accept massive manipulation of product presence online by transnationals and major corporations that do exactly what China is being accused of here.
China and Apple have the same mentality:
We know what is best for you, and we will not give you any choice about that.
They're cut from the same mold.
Apple production facilities are in China already, aren't they? Foxconn if I am not mistaken? If Chinese GOVERNMENT wanted to hurt Apple, they'd start there.
This is not government by itself, this is some competitor using his ties to the government channels maybe?
MY OTHER COMMENTS
Shouldn't that just be called Chatter?
Anyway, I find it hard to believe anyone has to be paid to bash Apple. I do it for free! Should I have been getting paid all this time?
I've studied Chinese history extensively (even have my Bachelor's in it). While I would not put it past the Chinese government to do this, at the same time it's a complete and total fallacy to assume that a totalitarian government akin to the Chinese one can stay in power without the strong support of a sizable minority and the tacit support or disinterest of the majority of people. Generally my experience with the Chinese shows that there are 1-3 out of every ten that support the government's actions, which is typically enough to keep them in power as long as the remaining 7 are apathetic.
Also, the Government is facing an existential crisis. They've built their legitimacy to rule on the idea that they could keep growing and prosper, and it worked as they built an export economy built on cheap labor. Now with the global economic downturn they've been unable to maintain the steady job growth, while at the same time many Chinese are prospering and looking for more than just a low paying factory job. They're trying to build a consumer economy but that shift takes time, so they've turned to nationalism instead to redirect any dissension in the populace outwards instead of inwards; see the whole Senkaku island spat between China and Japan. This is another example of it; they're turning their people ever so slightly against America to help unify them.
Let's move along. Post around 11:20 am.
My Macbook drowns kittens and beats up elderly ladies. Why would Apple be that evil? [need to post about 10:25AM]
Back before e-mail, someone wrote a letter to the offices of some company, complaining about their product or service. A few days later, he received a nicely worded apologetic letter. Attached to the letter was the post-it note, written by the recipient in the company which read, "Send this son-of-a-bitch our standard apology form letter."
Have gnu, will travel.
Post around 11:38PM Shanghai time.
It's humor, son. It doesn't rise to the standard of "pathetic."
Well, unless you miss the point...
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
In other news polar bears are suspected of causing global warming. You heard it here first slashdot. In case some how it is proven 100's of years from now.
This has to be the third or fourth story I read in recent weeks where someone made a post or tweet that was either inappropriately worded, or outright incorrect for its purpose, as this one looks to be. In all these cases, the account owners shrug it off as their account being hacked, as if it's something so common it happens to all of us weekly, in order to cover their ass.
It seems 'my account got hacked' is quickly becoming the 21st century 'my dog ate my homework' bullshit excuse. Let's just be sure not to forget the 'bullshit' part of that.
Well, we haven't yet seen the "From the Post-after-Samsung-Galaxy-S4-launch dept" tagline as a slipup yet, so not sure if it's astroturf or just a grudge.
After all this negative hacking publicity and a precarious human rights situation, finally some good news from China ...
The Chinese have been reading his book.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Well, we already know he's on Smart Brain's payroll...
The Chinese Communist Party has a group of people (mostly off-duty journalists, students, and such) called the 50 Cent Brigade. They pay them the equivalent of 50 cents every time they post a comment online to sway public opinion in the direction of the Party. This group probably isn't involved with the celebrities posting stuff on Twtitter, but the intention would be the same. Keep in mind that "Perception Management" is a big thing for the Chinese Communist Party--it's why they keep the entire country's media on such a short leash, why the censor the Internet, and why they censor keywords on their permitted social media platforms.
My niece was molested by an iPhone. True story.
Apple is responsible. The goal here is to get you to feel that apple is a victim.
If this story did not benefit apple, would you even be reading it right now?
I read the tweet on Weibo. I watched the TV show about Apple.
I am just wondering if what the tweet and the TV show want to tell us is true.
Seems none of you guys here think about it.
The cold war began in 1949 when China went communist, despite receiving help from the USA during World War 2.
They even sent Chinese to help the North Vietnamese kill Americans in Vietnam during the Vietnam war.
Even so the USA reached out to China. Trade was increased. We allowed technology developed in the USA to make its way into China. We allowed China to access the internet and much of the information and knowledge the West has to offer. We've tried being friends.
Still China stabs the USA in the back.
Is it a mistake then to trust China?
That's way better than mine.
My MacBook drowns elderly ladies and beats up kittens. Probably because it's "Pro".
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
It doesn't count if someone is constantly texting her and she send pictures afterwards.
You make USA out to be some benevolent deity, and even bring the Vietnam war up despite it being one of the greatest violations and shames of the USA. You must be completely indoctrinated. It seems you have plenty of schooling, maybe you should try some actual education?
I don't think it's fair to characterize direct US support of China during WWII as anything but pretty minimal and rather late.
The US didn't enter the war until after Pearl Harbor, and supply routes were were pretty much controlled by Japan at that point. The only way materials could be gotten in was airlift over the 'hump' aka the Himalayas.
Of course the USN working its way across the Pacific was a help in that it relieved pressure on China. But it was somewhat indirect.
Apple made their bed, no one hgeld a gun to the corporations head (well except greed) and forced them, to outsource to China.
They have no experience of another system of government and most people are conservative. It's just like Americans being fearful of "socialised" medicine - unless they've spent enough time in Europe to get to know another system.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Yeah! How dare the rest of the world decide things for themselves without so much as a by your leave!
It's obvious you're just a shill for the the American running dog government posting on behalf of their lackey, Apple. [need to post at 1:45 pm]
Who am I supposed to be rooting for here? If they dual to the death is it a win-win-win?
It may seem like it but Apple doesn't need China. Even with the stock buy back and dividends Apple has over 110 billion in the bank. Building their own factories and moving back to the US or a friendlier country would slightly reduce their massive profits. The good will could actually increase sales enough to offset the costs if they moved back to the US. Unless they think of something to do with the money they will likely have in excess of 200 billion in the bank by 2020. They could easily finance 10 missions to Mars so moving back the the US would barely dent their war chest.
There is not a single word printed in their Tech tab that isn't clearly paid propaganda by someone, either for Apple or Samsung.
The iPod Touch
So, the Chinese government is new to this. Companies and governments in the West are much better at recruiting each other and the people to do their propagandistic bidding for them.
Slashdot is, and has always been, a US site.
You can't "demonize" a demon. China is still a corrupt communist dictatorship.
They tried isolationism for a few centuries and it didn't work: the West surpassed them technologically and economically and then kicked their butts. The Chinese leadership is corrupt and totalitarian, but it isn't stupid. They keep Western companies in China to steal their technology, and the West plays along because we get cheap consumer goods. It's probably a reasonable deal, since technology is as short lived as a Chinese-made Barbie doll.
You must think schools in the USA work the same way they do in your homeland, comrade. There's plenty of anti-Americanism in education and many professional educators feel the same way you do about the USA and Vietnam. I heard plenty anti-Americanism growing up.
But Communism has shown itself to be a ruthless, murderous ideology. It's terrible that the USA was unable to save the South Vietnamese from the Communist North.
If anyone should be ashamed it's Chinese communists. Many Vietnamese would have been spared if not for Chinese efforts to impose communism on the country.
That's because it was a volunteer force, and to me that makes it even more significant.
No one forced these Americans to fight for the Chinese. Yet they did it anyway.
The Chinese are just mad that Apple announced plans to move some manufacturing to the US.
Many Hondurans , South Amercians and Africans would have been spared if the USA hadnt tried to force their brand of Corporate imperialism err democracy on them
This just a hypocritical pro-USA demonizing of China. March 15 is consumer day in China, apple service problem were one of the many got exposed by CCTV.
Corruption is EVERYWHERE, perhaps in the west its just a little more hidden. Case in point why are people upset with SOPA, wasnt it passed via a Democratic processes?
its just too bad the British didn't have a SOPA law during the industrial revolution when the US was stealing technology left, right and center.
"I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed."
— Marco Polo, on his death bed in 1324
Dang, I need a RAMmer upgrade.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
I'm enjoying the pro-China astroturfing that is going on below. /. would get of the AC option. It's only used by trolls now, not its original purpose of protected people from releasing important information (a la WikiLeaks). Then again, /. is now just a place to argue about global warming, judicial cases, and OS wars.
I really wish
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Why does the media in china have any influence, I like to think I am always suspicions of media in the west, (I do get caught out occasionally), you would think people in china ,where its even easier for the media to be manipulated, would be even more sceptical of what they read. I suppose thats easy for me to say, as someone from out side of China.
Actually they did, it's just that the US explicitly refused to acknowledge foreign patents and copyrights for several decades after declaring independence and encouraged its businessmen to engage in wholesale industrial espionage.
Sound like any country you know today?
Why bother hiring expensive celebrity astroturfers when your hacker sweatshop can get the same result for 1/20th the cost?
You get the occasional 'Need to post this by 8:20' slips, but hey, you get what you pay for.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
At least it's better than a Ballmer squirt.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
they must be on somebody's payroll
So maybe a few out of hundreds are sockpuppets, this is absolutely normal on the internet. Just look at APK's ranting posts. And his socks marking them up.
Enough is enough. Time for a tariff on all the crap that China is dumping on us. It would solve the budge crisis and bring industry back to the US.
It might say that in the FAQ, but the USA/Non-USA user split on Slashdot has been equal for years.
The majority of +5 posts come from Non-USA people. That is easy to check yourself.
US isn't corrupt? I live in MA, and it's practically a corrupt one-party dictatorship, just not communism. Spending more of your energy on creating some technology that cannot be so easily stolen by a country such as China or others might help this country more!!
Moron, I'm in LA you shill.