"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
China has a legendary legion of paid Internet commentators known as “50 Cent Party ???” members. These people are allegedly paid 0.5 RMB per post to support government policies online. China also has a less publicized but possibly much larger corporate Internet trolling industry, led by PR firms who pay commentators known as “Internet ghostwriters ????”. The most famous recent corporate trolling case involved a nasty smear campaign between several of China’s biggest dairy companies.
Lest readers believe this kind of Internet trolling is primarily a Chinese innovation, I point you to the revelations (original email chain) from the Anonymous hack of HBGary. One of the email chains about a proposal to the US Chamber of Commerce details the work offered, including “Social Media Exploitation” (SME, aka Trolling):
Social media sme ($250 per hour) – experienced in social media link analysis. Personna development. Content management. Social media exploitation techniques.
$250 per hour would pay for a lot of Chinese Internet trolls.
Don’t forget that paid internet commentators was an invention of Falungong, long before the time of fifty centers.
Don’t forget that paid internet commentators was an invention of Falungong, long before the time of fifty centers.