I00033 "China 50cent Army"
- Object type: apt
- Year started: 2014
- Found in country: China
- Attributions seen: China
Summary: 50cent Army is a CCP “tool” - “massive secret operation” in China pumping out an estimated 488 million fabricated social media posts per year, part of an effort to “regularly distract the public and change the subject” from any policy-related issues that threaten to anger citizens enough to turn them out onto the streets. But the research finds no evidence these 50-centers are, in fact, paid 50 cents, nor does it find they engage in direct and angry argument with their opponents. Instead, they are mostly bureaucrats already on the public payroll, responding to government directives at a time of heightened tension to flood social media with pro-government cheerleading.
Relationships
Uses techniques:
- T0002 as facilitate state propaganda and defuse crises:
- T0047 as cow online opinion leaders into submission, muzzling social media as a political force:
- T0048 as cow online opinion leaders into submission, muzzling social media as a political force:
- T0049 as 2,000,000 people (est.) part of state run/sponsored astroturfing: