Posted on 02/18/2020 9:47:13 PM PST by datura
The propaganda department in virus-stricken Hubei Province has engaged over 1,600 censors to scrub the internet of “sensitive” information relating to the coronavirus outbreak, according to an internal document obtained by The Epoch Times.
The internal report, dated Feb. 15, detailed the agency’s efforts to ramp up censorship measures. It was drafted after a speech given by Chinese leader Xi Jinping via video link on Feb. 10 to “frontline responders” of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, where the virus first broke out.
The revelations come as the Chinese regime tightens information controls over the worsening outbreak, as netizens have increasingly turned to the internet to vent their frustrations about the authorities’ response, or document what is happening on the ground.
The illness has seen a steadily growing official list of infections and deaths on a daily basis. Experts and commentators, however, believe the actual number of infections to be far greater, due to underreporting and shortages in testing kits and hospital beds—meaning many people are left undiagnosed.
1,600 Trolls Deployed
According to the document, the department has hired more than 1,600 trolls, known as the 50-cent army in China, to regulate internet speech continuously, 24/7.
The trolls, through technological and manual screening, had identified as many as 606,800 posts online with “sensitive or harmful information,” it said.
Their approach, it said, was to “timely dispel the online rumors” and “strike powerful blows offline.”
As of Feb. 14, the online censors had deleted as many as 54,000 such “rumors,” and had social media influencers write nearly 400 commentary articles to shape the narrative.
The regime’s propaganda efforts, the report said, should be directed toward promoting the effects of officials’ outbreak control measures and the “moving deeds” of volunteers, community workers, and the police.
Some professional “internet commentators” had also made 400,000 comments to “counter the negative public opinions,” according to the document.
Posts mourning whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang, who died of the virus he was warning about in December, quickly disappeared from the internet in the hours after the news of his passing was first announced. “I want free speech,” a phrase that became trending on Chinese social media following his death, was also swiftly erased.
Wuhan citizen journalists Fang Bin and Chen Qiushi also recently disappeared after posting regular videos online highlighting the severity of the outbreak.
As of Feb. 11, over 2,500 people had signed a joint online petition expressing anger over Li’s death and criticizing the government for suppressing free speech during the outbreak. Several co-signees were subsequently summoned by local police. At least one was detained.
The department has also set up 11 work groups for the purpose of “wartime propaganda” work. The groups were communicating daily with propaganda officials from the central government to “coordinate public opinion” in real time on issues “online and offline,” “inside the country and overseas,” it stated.
OUSTING LOCAL REPORTERS
According to the leaked report, at least 60 reporters from 33 overseas news agencies came to Wuhan after the coronavirus outbreak began earlier this year. However, at least 47 of them agreed to leave, through the department’s “communication and persuasion.”
As of the evening of Feb. 14, only five non-mainland outlets had reporters in Hubei.
To “lead overseas media to objectively report on the outbreak information,” the department has set up an international language section and have published 200 pieces on the outbreak from official channels in seven languages, the document said.
On Jan. 14, a group of reporters from at least four Hong Kong media were taken to a police station located within a hospital in Wuhan after trying to interview patients, according to local media.
The police searched their belongings and asked them to delete the videos taken around the hospital. They were only released after 1 1/2 hours of interrogation.
CENSORSHIP OVERDRIVE
The Chinese regime has made the suppression of information about the virus a priority.
At a Feb. 3 meeting, the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the top decision-making body, called for authorities to “strengthen internet and media control.”
This has filtered down to local authorities cracking down on people for “spreading rumors” on the internet about the outbreak.
Chinese state-run media have warned people not to “spread fake information” about the coronavirus, lest they be in violation of China’s Criminal Law.
A provision of that law states that anyone found fabricating and spreading false information on an epidemic, disaster, or police activity, can be sentenced to three to seven years in prison.
Washington-based nonprofit Chinese Human Rights Defenders documented 254 cases of arrests between Jan. 22 and Jan. 28, in which Chinese citizens were punished for “spreading rumors” relating to the virus. The forms of penalty included fines, verbal warnings, and forced confessions.
In a list of 167 cases of people punished for rumor-mongering published by U.S.-based website China Digital Times, the majority of the “offenses” were posts about confirmed or suspected cases in their city or neighborhood. Some included the number of deaths.
For instance, a man in Baoding City, Hebei Province, wrote on his blog: “I truly believe the authorities have not revealed the true number of infected patients. I heard that in a village about 20 kilometers [12.4 miles] from ours, the number of confirmed cases was six on Jan. 26. All were sent to the hospital for quarantine. But I have not seen any official reports that included these six cases.”
He received five days of administrative detention for this posting. Administrative detention refers to the arrest and detention of an individual without trial.
Yeah, they are.
The Left has been bought by the ChiComs, and much of the Republican Party too. Bernie is their man, and the stupid millennial kids too.
Bloomberg too.
This virus is more than it appears.
Yeah, my relatives in China tell me things you don’t hear on the news. Believe no network news on the virus.
Prepare for the worst, pray for the best.
I want to be wrong.
That the Diamond Princess has no fatalities yet is an important piece of information—I’m just not sure if the information is very good or very bad.
Do they whip them beat them to try to keep up with the vast amount of data updated by the millisecond? 1600 seems like a drop in the bucket on a fool’s errand.
Is this real or are they pretending just so we report their hiring trolls?
I don’t want to say anything about China and the virus for fear it will cause more panic and the markets go capoot!
Anyone?
The Chinese health system is HORRIBLE it is a communist country I believe that if you are OUT of China the virus is not as bad as the hysteria is making it out to be!! You live under communism and socialism you can expect your healthcare to be dismal !!!
Please do some research into DragonFlyEye by Alibaba.
1600 technicians using that system can cover every electronic transmission into or out of China on Weibo or WeChat.
I’ve had a lot of WeChat messages disappear as of late.
Why don’t you fill me in instead of telling me to research something on my own. After all, that’s why we post here, to share things we know on an open forum, isn’t it?
I have sources inside China that I cannot betray. They are family.
And I am not your secretary. I gave you a direct subject to search for, either in this site or the web in general. I have posted articles about DragonFlyEye in the past.
Oh, I should say that I fully expect the largest and most insane Communist nation in the world tells lies and obfuscate. I don’t think any of us are going to stop them
“Yeah, my relatives in China tell me things you don’t hear on the news. Believe no network news on the virus.”
Mine are saying the same thing.
They have some sympathy for the low-level government flunkies but not a lot of respect for the bureaucracy as a whole.
I honestly don’t care what happens in China. I just don’t want their system to survive here!
We can reroute supply chains.
Hey Moonman62,
Is this what you have been up to?
“Do they whip them beat them to try to keep up with the vast amount of data updated by the millisecond?”
In (I think) 2006 the lovely, smart, looks 25 years younger than she is, Chinese wife and I were robbed while on a holiday in Shenzhen. We needed to use a computer at the police station to access our HK bank to cancel credit cards. They let us use a computer in the room where the police were SUPPOSED to be monitoring internet websites for anti-PRC things. The guys in the room were actually playing Grand-Theft Auto. That corruption thing, it sort of works both ways.
Well, I don't want to do a Google search for "DragonFlyEye" unless I know what I am looking for. So, I looked back through your comments in forum for the past four years and I only found DragonFlyEye typed in comments two times. The two times you just typed it in the above comments to me.
So, I'll ask again. What the deuce is DragonFlyEye and why should anyone care about it? Is it something like ECHELON or Carnivore?
Going viral on the virus.
Kind of like this
Dragonfly Eye is the AI system invented by Alibaba, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon. They market surveillance systems to cities in China, using Shanghai as the test city.
No one can go anywhere, 24/7/365 without being seen by Dragongly Eye. Able to decipher 2 billion faces per second.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.