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Many sites hosted outside of China that Chinese expats frequent (like http://mitbbs.com http://mitbbs.com) have also been flooded with pro-amendment messages.

Many sites hosted outside of China that Chinese expats frequent (like http://mitbbs.com http://mitbbs.com) have also been flooded with pro-amendment messages. Google Translate of the site: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mitbbs.com%2F https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&...

yasp 9y ago
Related: How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument (PDF) >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 show 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. http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf
- vfulco 9y ago
  I have always assumed as much. Like the chaff that defensive systems on a fighter plane has. Shoot out a bunch of garbage to confuse the highly targeted offensive action.
tonylinn80 9y ago
Not surprising at all. In fact, many of the Chinese expats (visitors of mitbbs.com) are pro-china in general. They become less agreeing to western values after spending years in US. (I am one of those examples myself)
- Abundnce10 9y ago
  > They become less agreeing to western values after spending years in US. (I am one of those examples myself) Can you explain which values you're referring to and why you don't agree with them?
  - aphextron 9y ago
    >Can you explain which values you're referring to and why you don't agree with them? I can imagine that personal property rights and freedom of speech are not included in that list of disagreeable values.
    - tonylinn80 9y ago
      democracy, to begin with... at least American style of democracy
      - sidcool 9y ago
        Elaborate.
        tonylinn80 9y ago
        It'll take too much time to talk in details. Democracy in general in better than totalitarian in general, i don't disagree with that. However, establishing American democracy in China at this moment, most likely won't bring anything good or solve any problems China is facing now. And it's dangerous: If a presidential candidate say "Elect me and we'll take Taiwan back by force", the most likely outcome is that he'll get a shit ton of votes for that stance.
yusuke10 9y ago
Alot of Chinese wanting to vent frustration but can't in China's social networks have moved onto reddit. "Why I even cannot speak" https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80hc82/why_i_even_cannot_speak/ https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80hc82/why_i_even_ca... "I JUST WANNA CRY" https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80ashy/i_just_wanna_cry/ https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80ashy/i_just_wanna_... "听着国际歌，泪停不下来 Cant stop crying while listening to the Internationale" https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80c7mo/%E5%90%AC%E7%9D%80%E5%9B%BD%E9%99%85%E6%AD%8C%E6%B3%AA%E5%81%9C%E4%B8%8D%E4%B8%8B%E6%9D%A5_cant_stop_crying_while_listening_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80c7mo/%E5%90%AC%E7%...

yasp 9y ago

Related: How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument (PDF) >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 show 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. http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf

vfulco 9y ago
I have always assumed as much. Like the chaff that defensive systems on a fighter plane has. Shoot out a bunch of garbage to confuse the highly targeted offensive action.

tonylinn80 9y ago

Not surprising at all. In fact, many of the Chinese expats (visitors of mitbbs.com) are pro-china in general. They become less agreeing to western values after spending years in US. (I am one of those examples myself)

Abundnce10 9y ago
> They become less agreeing to western values after spending years in US. (I am one of those examples myself) Can you explain which values you're referring to and why you don't agree with them?
- aphextron 9y ago
  >Can you explain which values you're referring to and why you don't agree with them? I can imagine that personal property rights and freedom of speech are not included in that list of disagreeable values.
  - tonylinn80 9y ago
    democracy, to begin with... at least American style of democracy
    - sidcool 9y ago
      Elaborate.
      - tonylinn80 9y ago
        It'll take too much time to talk in details. Democracy in general in better than totalitarian in general, i don't disagree with that. However, establishing American democracy in China at this moment, most likely won't bring anything good or solve any problems China is facing now. And it's dangerous: If a presidential candidate say "Elect me and we'll take Taiwan back by force", the most likely outcome is that he'll get a shit ton of votes for that stance.

yusuke10 9y ago

Alot of Chinese wanting to vent frustration but can't in China's social networks have moved onto reddit. "Why I even cannot speak" https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80hc82/why_i_even_cannot_speak/ https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80hc82/why_i_even_ca... "I JUST WANNA CRY" https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80ashy/i_just_wanna_cry/ https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80ashy/i_just_wanna_... "听着国际歌，泪停不下来 Cant stop crying while listening to the Internationale" https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80c7mo/%E5%90%AC%E7%9D%80%E5%9B%BD%E9%99%85%E6%AD%8C%E6%B3%AA%E5%81%9C%E4%B8%8D%E4%B8%8B%E6%9D%A5_cant_stop_crying_while_listening_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/80c7mo/%E5%90%AC%E7%...