Monday, January 12, 2009
Chinese Gov’t Pays Users to Comment in Their Interest
China is using an increasing number of paid “internet commentators” in a sophisticated attempt to control public opinion.
These commentators are used by government departments to scour the internet for bad news – and then negate it.
They post comments on websites and forums that spin bad news into good in an attempt to shape public opinion. (...)
They have been dubbed the “50-cent party” because of how much they are reputed to be paid for each positive posting (50 Chinese cents; $0.07; £0.05).
On a not too related note, Google-powered Chinese web board Tianya is also paying users to get involved, but not for propaganda (albeit political messages are party disallowed there). Part of the WenDa Redeem program, if you login to Tianya every day to answer questions, you get the chance to win phone cards or vouchers. A counter keeps track of your activity, though I’m told by a native speaker that after 3 days of inactivity, that counter is reset, nullifying previous efforts. The upper limit for daily earnings is 5 Yuan.
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