Chicom online propaganda

boomzilla

Alex Tabarrok / Jan 17, 2017

Authoritarians Distract Rather than Debate - Marginal REVOLUTION

It’s long been known that the Chinese government hires people to support the government with fabricated posts on social media. In China these people are known as the “50c party”, so called because the posters were rumored to be paid 50 cents (5 jiao or about $.08) to write the posts. The precise...

According to this study the Chinese government employs people to make social media postings which basically attempt to change the subject from "dangerous" topics or ideas.

Distraction is a clever and useful strategy in information control in that an argument in almost any human discussion is rarely an effective way to put an end to an opposing argument. Letting an argument die, or changing the subject, usually works much better than picking an argument and getting someone’s back up…
...
a massive government effort, where every year the 50c party writes approximately 448 million social media posts nationwide. About 52.7% of these posts appear on government sites. The remaining 212 million posts are inserted into the stream of approximately 80 billion total posts on commercial social media sites, all in real time. If these estimates are correct, a large proportion of government web site comments, and about one of every 178 social media posts on commercial sites, are fabricated by the government. The posts are not randomly distributed but, as we show in Figure 2, are highly focused and directed, all with specific intent and content.

Emphasis added.

RaceProUK

@boomzilla So basically, the study says that people who want to hide what they're doing prefer to rather than engage in debate.

boomzilla

@RaceProUK They talk about that effect and their research makes the claim that the PRC is doing that online.

RaceProUK

@boomzilla Let's be honest though, it's no secret the ruling party in a single-party state wants to hold onto power, and will do what's necessary to keep it.

boomzilla

@RaceProUK Of course. But it's interesting that this is one way in which they're doing it.

Groaner

@RaceProUK said in Chicom online propaganda:

@boomzilla So basically, the study says that people who want to hide what they're doing prefer to rather than engage in debate.

Hmm. Why does this seem familiar?

Tsaukpaetra

@Groaner said in Chicom online propaganda:

@RaceProUK said in Chicom online propaganda:

@boomzilla So basically, the study says that people who want to hide what they're doing prefer to rather than engage in debate.

Hmm. Why does this seem familiar?

b/c We have ongoing studies being performed right here on the forums?

RaceProUK

@Groaner said in Chicom online propaganda:

@RaceProUK said in Chicom online propaganda:

@boomzilla So basically, the study says that people who want to hide what they're doing prefer to rather than engage in debate.

Hmm. Why does this seem familiar?

This forum is The Case Study™ ;)

Onyx

@RaceProUK said in Chicom online propaganda:

@Groaner said in Chicom online propaganda:

@RaceProUK said in Chicom online propaganda:

@boomzilla So basically, the study says that people who want to hide what they're doing prefer to rather than engage in debate.

Hmm. Why does this seem familiar?

This forum is The Case Study™ ;)