China beats India in social media fakery

In China, as we are reminded over and over again, they do things differently. While, in the free world that includes our neck of the woods, social media is abuzz with incredibly truthful and useful information that puts the D into democracy, it turns out that the Chinese ‘fake’ some 488 million social media comments a year. This fact was uncovered by Harvard University political scientist Gary King as part of his study on China’s online propaganda workers. Prof King, we believe, is genuine.

Known as the Fifty Cent Party — not because they are fans of rapper 50 Cent, but because they are reportedly paid 50 renminbi cents for every social media post — these folks post cheerful messages about the Chinese State and its various activities. A bit like our bhakts on social media who do it for free. The use of the word ‘fake’, though, to describe these 488 million comments maybe a bit stretched.

To extol the virtues of a flyover in Xinjiang, or to find a State cultural programme to be more riveting than the Oscars does not comprise a ‘lie’. The purpose of these comments is reportedly to ‘distract’ citizens from ‘bad news’ and ‘sensitive issues’. Which, last heard, is not a Chinese Communist Party monopoly but a practice perfected by the likes of American reality television and ‘news’ on which celebrity is cheating on which other celebrity, vital info that’s been cloned and is lapped up across democracies, including our own.