
China is perfecting a new method for suppressing dissent on the internet - mcone
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/8/2/16019562/china-internet-freedom-dissent-twitter-facebook
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nabla9
I skimmed the actual paper.

To summarize: 50c is massive scale social media astroturfing or 'reverse
censorship' that spikes up to drown all negative news with positive news.

> We show that almost none of the Chinese government’s 50c party posts engage
> in debate or argument of any kind. They do not step up to defend the
> government, its leaders, and their policies from criticism, no matter how
> vitriolic; indeed, they seem to avoid controversial issues entirely.
> Instead, most 50c posts are about cheerleading and positive discussions of
> valence issues. We also detect a high level of coordination in the timing
> and content in these posts. A theory consistent with these patterns is that
> the strategic objective of the regime is to distract and redirect public
> attention from discussions or events with collective action potential.

This is exactly how professional corporate PR works. Don't lie. Don't get
stuck to negative issues. Control the narrative and and direct the discussion
elsewhere.

