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How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction Argument
http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf ^ | 14JAN2017 | Gary King, Jennifer Pan, Margaret E. Roberts

Posted on 01/19/2017 9:32:03 AM PST by AdmSmith

The Chinese government has long been suspected of hiring as many as 2,000,000 people to surreptitiously insert huge numbers of pseudonymous and other deceptive writings into the stream of real social media posts, as if they were the genuine opinions of ordinary people.

Many academics, and most journalists and activists, claim that these so-called “50c party” posts vociferously argue for the government’s side in political and policy debates. As we show, this is also true of the vast majority of posts openly accused on social media of being 50c. Yet, almost no systematic empirical evidence exists for this claim, or, more importantly, for the Chinese regime's strategic objective in pursuing this activity.

In the first large scale empirical analysis of this operation, we show how to identify the secretive authors of these posts, the posts written by them, and their content. We estimate that the government fabricates and posts about 448 million social media comments a year. In contrast to prior claims, we show that the Chinese regime’s strategy is to avoid arguing with skeptics of the party and the government, and to not even discuss controversial issues. We infer that the goal of this massive secretive operation is instead to distract the public and change the subject, as most of the these posts involve cheerleading for China, the revolutionary history of the Communist Party, or other symbols of the regime.

We discuss how these results fit with what is known about the Chinese censorship program, and suggest how they may change our broader theoretical understanding of “common knowledge” and information control in authoritarian regimes.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: china; trolls
Well worth the read.
1 posted on 01/19/2017 9:32:03 AM PST by AdmSmith
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To: AdmSmith

We have had them here. I outed one under the name “Cecil Rhodes Rides Again”. He was banned pretty quickly.


2 posted on 01/19/2017 9:34:27 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: gleeaikin; manc; Personal Responsibility; DoughtyOne; BradtotheBone; TigerLikesRooster; Dog; ...

Chinese 2M social media army.


3 posted on 01/19/2017 9:34:44 AM PST by AdmSmith (GCTGATATGTCTATGATTACTCAT)
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To: AdmSmith

Same thing everyday at 4chan:

its Hollywood social justice Warriors who come in and write insane stuff to distract.


4 posted on 01/19/2017 9:35:57 AM PST by gaijin
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To: AdmSmith

Wonder how many we have here? Especially with the prohibition against domestic propaganda being removed.


5 posted on 01/19/2017 9:40:11 AM PST by DesertRhino
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To: AdmSmith

The Chinese censorship program isn’t new. It started with MAO and continues today. But, that’s just an opinion.


6 posted on 01/19/2017 9:52:46 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: AdmSmith

The strategy has been adopted by democrats and progressives for quite long time.


7 posted on 01/19/2017 9:56:26 AM PST by granada
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To: DesertRhino
The 50c members are active in China, but some of the Freepers are probably working for the Chinese government (and some for the Russian government)
8 posted on 01/19/2017 9:58:21 AM PST by AdmSmith (GCTGATATGTCTATGATTACTCAT)
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To: cloudmountain
The Chinese censorship program isn't new.

True
9 posted on 01/19/2017 9:59:24 AM PST by AdmSmith (GCTGATATGTCTATGATTACTCAT)
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To: AdmSmith

Oh without a doubt. But I was wondering how many people the US government uses this way. And not just here, but also FB, twitter, etc.


10 posted on 01/19/2017 1:45:33 PM PST by DesertRhino
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To: AdmSmith
They also descend on comment sections of major U.S. newspapers when they run news articles critical of Chinese regime.

Their reach goes beyond China's border. They target overseas Chinese and are even active in websites of foreign countries, especially neighboring E. Asian countries. They enlist Chinese residing in those countries to push the regime's propaganda. They also infiltrate local political websites whose main users are not Chinese.

As this article says, there are so many of them, which makes it possible to carry out their operation far and wide.

11 posted on 01/19/2017 3:55:26 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster (dead parakeet + lost fishing gear = freep all day)
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To: AdmSmith

Twitter does this too. I noticed when I read Twitter posts last year and many had the same anti-Trump postings.
I am betting the twitter users had no choice.


12 posted on 01/19/2017 4:03:31 PM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: AdmSmith
I think many of them have some business connection to China. For example, farmers' living depends on grain export to China. There are many business people whose livelihood also depends on trade with China such as business consulting or export of capital equipment. Then there are people who have personal connection to Chinese. Ethnic Chinese or those with a Chinese spouse or whose children have a Chinese spouse.

They could voluntarily sign up for Chicom propaganda efforts. Chinese regime does not have to pay them. Their business interest or personal connection is a strong motivation.

On the other hand, there are many ethnic Chinese who hate mainland Chinese with passion. The most scathing criticisms of China tend to come from them. Many of them are angry at or ashamed of what mainland Chinese regime or people do. They resent Chinese regime trying to impose their oppressive control on them, or unruly deplorable behaviors of Chinese tourists.

13 posted on 01/19/2017 4:13:33 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster (dead parakeet + lost fishing gear = freep all day)
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To: minnesota_bound
Political propaganda has been integral part of the political left since their birth in 19th century. They always have dedicated propaganda groups. It is their missionary work. They will never stop until everybody on Earth is converted to worshiping their ideology.
14 posted on 01/19/2017 4:19:36 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster (dead parakeet + lost fishing gear = freep all day)
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