Chinese officials create 488m bogus social media posts a year, study finds

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Chinese officials create 488m bogus social media posts a year, study finds

Harvard researchers say leaked documents show bureaucrats fabricate
positive posts to distract from criticism of government

Tom Phillips in Beijing
Friday 20 May 2016 08.44 BST

The Chinese government is fabricating almost 490m social media posts a year as part of a “massive secretive operation” designed to distract the public from criticising or questioning its rule, according to a study.

China’s “Fifty Cent Party” – a legion of freelance online trolls so-named because they are believed to be paid 50 cents a post – has long been blamed for flooding the Chinese internet with pro-regime messages designed to defend and promote the ruling Communist party.

However, the study by Harvard University researchers (pdf) claims many of those comments are not posted by ordinary citizens, as previously thought, but by civil servants who double as online stooges.

An analysis of nearly 43,800 posts found that 99.3% were the work of government employees working for more than 200 agencies, including tax and social security and human resources bureaus.

The researchers believe such comments are usually posted in “bursts”, timed to coincide with politically sensitive periods, such as Communist party meetings, outbreaks of unrest and public holidays.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/20/chinese-officials-create-488m-social-media-posts-a-year-study-finds

[pengu]

1. Unlike our party leadership, which privatizes their paid trolling

[djean111]

2. And also makes taxpayers pick up the tab.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2013/07/03/ig-report-state-department-spent-630000-to-increase-facebook-likes/

The State Department spent over $630,000 to increase Facebook “likes” for four of its pages on the social-networking site, according to an inspector general’s report.

The efforts, which involved advertising initiatives between 2011 and March 2013, increased the fan numbers for each page from about 100,000 to more than 2 million, the report said. But employees complained that the agency was “buying fans,” according to the inspector general.

[pengu]

3. lol, I hadn't seen that

I am not the least bit surprised though.

[DetlefK]

4. "Both sides do it?" Really?

Do you want me to list a few bad things about China? We can see how it measures compared to the US.