Posted on 05/19/2005 5:27:26 PM PDT by QwertyKPH
China goes undercover to sway opinion on internet
20.05.05
BEIJING - China has formed a special force of undercover online commentators to try to sway public opinion on controversial issues on the Internet, a newspaper said yesterday.
China has struggled to gain control over the Internet as more and more people gain access to obtain information beyond official sources. The country has nearly 100 million Internet users, according to official figures, and the figure is rising.
A special force of online commentators had already been operating in Suqian city in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu since April, the Southern Weekend said.
Their job was to defend the government when negative comments appeared on Internet bulletin boards and chatrooms, the weekly quoted local officials as saying.
Suqian city’s propaganda department recruited the commentators from among government officials, the weekly said, adding that they must "understand (government) policies, be versed in (political) theories and be politically reliable".
"They will guide public opinion as ordinary netizens. This is both important and effective," Ma Zhichun, one of the recruited commentators, was quoted as saying.
Zhan Jiang, dean of journalism at China Youth University for Political Sciences, did not approve of Internet special forces writing anonymously on the Internet.
"It’s okay if they voice their opinions on the government Web sites as officials, but it is suspicious if they do it this way," Zhan told Reuters. "It’s not good for the natural expression of public opinion." But city governments in at least three provinces were recruiting online commentators, the weekly said.
"We are not the first and won’t be the last (to have online commentators). The whole nation is playing the same game," Ma was quoted as saying.
The Communist Party’s top disciplinary and supervision body trained 127 officials for such jobs last year to "strengthen Internet propaganda on its anti-corruption undertaking", the weekly said.
Beijing has created a special Internet police force believed responsible for shutting down domestic sites posting politically unacceptable content, blocking some foreign news sites and jailing several people for their online postings.
In March, bulletin boards operated by the country’s most prominent universities were blocked to off-campus Internet users as part of the campaign to strengthen ideological education of college students.
- REUTERS
I think the islamokazis are using the internet to sway the idiots over at the DU.
There used to be a character here called Texas Dawg. I'm sure he was one of them.
Yeah I remember him.
They're not effective, here!
That might explain the influx of trolls lately.
It's too late for the Cadres, the genie is out of the bottle.
Oh, they'll try but technology is a great leap forward,
one that they are already behind on.
As if some folks on here aren't paranoid enough...lol
Paul Ross made a comment that he wondered if there were not some on this site trying to sway opinion. I first took it as conspiracy.
However, there are several that whenever something is good for china and bad for the US they always seem to be for it and call it free capitalism blah blah blah.
I outed one: "CecilRhodesRidesAgain", he was all over the Chicom trade threads.
You notice that the Chinese shills always pose as Ayn Rand "super capitalists".
From the paid IBM "evangelists" to the communist Chinese "commentators", from now on posters pushing those positions online will have major credibility issues.
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Ah, the little man in the trenchcoat, pushing IBM and China down our throats, despite national security concerns. The only thing that's changed is we now know IBM and China are paying people to do it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1327158/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1349045/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1359349/posts
They project our behavior onto others, |
LOL, that describes you to a T. I've only been pointing it out how long now, and here you go right out and admit it.
SYS0033: [I know you are but what am I] encountered where [intelligent response] was expected.
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