China's Internet propaganda employs "Fifty Cent Party" to write "cheerleading" comments on social media. (Photo : Getty Images)
Internet propaganda in China has never been so "subtle and sophisticated," as a recent study reveals how China's ruling party controls messages delivered via the World Wide Web.
An article from Quartz revealed how the Chinese Communist Party uses the information super highway to disseminate a message to the public through intricately woven strategic posts over the social media.
Citing a study conducted by Harvard University, University of California, and Stanford University researchers, Quartz revealed how the Chinese government employed a group of Internet commenters who are tasked to create around 488 million fake social media posts annually.
The "Fifty Cent Party"
The study studied a group called the "Fifty Cent Party," which scholars, activists and journalists claim are employed to post arguments that favor the Chinese government's side on policy and political debates.
Quartz noted that they were named such because they are rumored to earn 50 cents per post.
According to the researchers, there had been no clear evidence of the existence of these social media legion prior to their work which revealed something that was different from popular belief.
Contrary to what most assume, the study showed that members of the "Fifty Cent Party" did not argue to defend the government.
"They do not step up to defend the government, its leaders, and their policies from criticism, no matter how vitriolic," the study stated.
Their comments were all on the positive, which appears to be a sort of "cheerleading" thing, like the ones translated by Quartz.
"Respect to all the people who have greatly contributed to the prosperity and success of the Chinese civilization! The heroes of the people are immortal," one post stated.
"We all have to work harder, to rely on ourselves, to take the initiative to move forward," another added.
The Goal
According to the authors, China's goal in doing this might be to distract the public from dissident information they may be getting and, therefore, deter protests.
They were led to say this because, apparently, the social media posts were not just randomly made--they were posted during strategic times.
Apparently, the "Fifty Cent Party" increased the number of posts in instances such as riots, government meetings, and public holidays and even deadly accidents like the one in April 2014 when a railway explosion took many lives. At the time, the comments were revolving around "good governance" and "people's livelihood."
Because of this, Quartz strongly believes that even official statements and state-run media articles are part of this propaganda.
