China goes undercover to sway opinion on Internet


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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 on Thursday.

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.

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The government never ceases to amaze me here. The internet is not like television or the newspaper where they can control the flow of information. It is too big a place to filter out all the information that they don't want the public to know. They will have to change their philosophy, or have it blow up in their faces. More and more people are using the internet to gather information and voice their opinion, and no matter what the government does, they will not be able to fully suppress it. Instead of trying to suppress it, why don't they "gasp", use it as a way to listen to the concerns of the people and address them? I can really see something like the Cultural Revolution coming if the government stays on its current course of suppression and control. More people will begin to see how they are suppressed and demand the rights they deserve. It is no longer the 80?s; they cannot afford another Tiananmen Square like incident. This strategy IMO will not work. They will have to address the concerns of the people at some point.

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The Internets first real score......forcing a govt to become more democratic (or implode as it scurries around trying to control what is more or less chaos.) One can dream.

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The Internets first real score......forcing a govt to become more democratic (or implode as it scurries around trying to control what is more or less chaos.)  One can dream.

585946001[/snapback]

It's more likely than you think. If a decent percent of the population here gets an idea in thier head, it's big trouble. Just look what happened during the Cultural Revolution.

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i am a chinese. if any one goes to china to stay for a while, i think he/she will figure out that for that many uneducated people, knowing something against the government can be a HUGE problem, for the society and the world.

some of you may think what they do is rediculus but that is the only way for now. just be patient.

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I AM NORMAL CHINESE CITIZEN. MY NAME WING WANG WONG.

DO NOT BELIEVE ARTICLE.

ARTICLE WRONG AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS GOOD.

CHINESE GOVERNMENT REALLY GOOD.

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I AM NORMAL CHINESE CITIZEN. MY NAME WING WANG WONG.

DO NOT BELIEVE ARTICLE.

ARTICLE WRONG AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS GOOD.

CHINESE GOVERNMENT REALLY GOOD.

585971258[/snapback]

lmao

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I AM NORMAL CHINESE CITIZEN. MY NAME WING WANG WONG.

DO NOT BELIEVE ARTICLE.

ARTICLE WRONG AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS GOOD.

CHINESE GOVERNMENT REALLY GOOD.

585971258[/snapback]

:laugh:

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I AM NORMAL CHINESE CITIZEN. MY NAME WING WANG WONG.

DO NOT BELIEVE ARTICLE.

ARTICLE WRONG AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS GOOD.

CHINESE GOVERNMENT REALLY GOOD.

585971258[/snapback]

<Joke mode>

YEAH YOU RIGHT MAN THEY ARE SO VERY GOOD!

</Joke mode>

<Political correctness>

You just offended me. :angry:

</Political correctness>

I'll bet that someone will scream out the 6 letter R word. :s

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I AM NORMAL CHINESE CITIZEN. MY NAME WING WANG WONG.

DO NOT BELIEVE ARTICLE.

ARTICLE WRONG AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS GOOD.

CHINESE GOVERNMENT REALLY GOOD.

585971258[/snapback]

:rolleyes:

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I AM NORMAL CHINESE CITIZEN. MY NAME WING WANG WONG.

DO NOT BELIEVE ARTICLE.

ARTICLE WRONG AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS GOOD.

CHINESE GOVERNMENT REALLY GOOD.

585971258[/snapback]

:pinch: :rofl:

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I say let them grow and let's cut internet in 2 heheh

585974512[/snapback]

What were gonna have a internet cold war now?

one for China and the rest for everybody else?

seems like that China been stepping the line for awhile

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I AM NORMAL CHINESE CITIZEN. MY NAME WING WANG WONG.

DO NOT BELIEVE ARTICLE.

ARTICLE WRONG AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS GOOD.

CHINESE GOVERNMENT REALLY GOOD.

585971258[/snapback]

ROFL :rofl:

Meh, this probably wont work, the accounts would get found out, and if they were posting on sites not under the chinese governments control, they would be banned.

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