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China Fakes 488 Million Social Media Posts a Year To Deceive Its Citizens (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the influencing-people's-perception dept.

In an attempt to keep its citizens from seeing bad news and getting involved in sensitive political debates, China's government fabricates about 488 million social media comments a year, reports Bloomberg citing a study (PDF). The propaganda workers who post comments are known as Fifty Cent Party because they are believed to be paid 50 Chinese cents by the Chinese government for every comment they post. From the report: Although those who post comments are often rumored to be ordinary citizens, the researchers were surprised to find that nearly all the posts were written by workers at government agencies including tax and human resource departments, and at courts. The researchers said they found no evidence that people were paid for the posts, adding the work was probably part of the employees' job responsibilities. Fifty Cent Party is a derogatory term since it implies people are bought off cheaply. About half of the positive messages appear on government websites, and the rest are injected into the 80 billion social media posts that enter China's Internet. That means one of every 178 social media posts on China's micro blogs is made up by the government, the researchers said. The sites affected include those run by Tencent Holdings Ltd., Sina Corp. and Baidu Inc.

5 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Meanwhile in the USA... by wardrich86 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    488 million accounts are being faked to help spread doom, fear, and other bad news over stupid, menial things like which bathroom people should use, and why unisex bathrooms are the worst idea in the history of the world.

    1. Re:Meanwhile in the USA... by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm very sure the US is NO DIFFERENT.

      we all suspect that various social media sites (this one included) are invaded by paid shills to slant the discussion in the direction that their funders wish.

      the US is definitely not above this. what's different is that its not blatant and official; but that does not mean it does not exist.

      lets also remember that over the last 20 years, the media has been bought by the government in all practical terms. when wa the last time you saw a hardball question thrown to a candidate by the mainstream 'news' ? when a story about privacy or terrorism is breaking, does the news side with the gov or the people?

      corporations are also 'people' now and they pay shills to tip the story balance in their favor via commentors.

      this should be taught in schools; that we are bombarded by info at all directions but that most of it, sadly, is propaganda and you have to be suspicious of everything you hear and see since, well, so many agendas are out there and news isn't news anymore, its paid PR spin.

      at least in china, they know this. in the US, many of us still think that news is real. many of us still think wrestling on TV is real, too (sigh).

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    2. Re:Meanwhile in the USA... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Thanks to Snowden we know for a fact that GCHQ, a sub-division of the NSA, does in fact do a lot of manipulation of social media. In fact they mention Slashdot by name.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. The sad part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The sad part is that if you asked around (in China), you would find that a large percentage, if not the majority, of Chinese people actually "support" these forms of oppression. THAT is the power of indoctrination. When you spend your entire life knowing nothing but authoritarianism and oppression, and being told constantly that it's for your benefit, you will have a very difficult time imagining the alternative. It's similar to how a life-long prisoner, upon being set free, finds that he just can't function properly outside of prison. The authoritarianism is actually comforting to them, and that's exactly how the rulers would have it. The only people who dare to imagine a better society are the radicals, and we all know what happens to radicals in China.

    1. Re:The sad part by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >> The only people who dare to imagine a better society are the radicals, and we all know what happens to radicals in China.

      And back here in the US, those of us who dare to imagine a better society are mostly ignored and then arrogantly told that our preferred candidate should "do the right thing" (endorse the status quo) when we try to use our existing democratic process to advance our agenda. Sounds like becoming a radical might be the smarter course of action... :)