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Cited by 1,028Media Influence and PoliticsMisinformation and Its ImpactsSocial Media and Politics

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 67 of the 67 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument

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KING, GARY, PAN, JENNIFER, ROBERTS, MARGARET E.·2017·American Political Science Review
DOI 10.1017/s0003055417000144
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Abstract

The Chinese government has long been suspected of hiring as many as 2 million people to surreptitiously insert huge numbers of pseudonymous and other deceptive writings into the stream of real social media posts, as if they were the genuine opinions of ordinary people. Many academics, and most journalists and activists, claim that these so-called 50c party posts vociferously argue for the government’s side in political and policy debates. As we show, this is also true of most posts openly accused on social media of being 50c. Yet almost no systematic empirical evidence exists for this claim or, more importantly, for the Chinese regime’s strategic objective in pursuing this activity. In the first large-scale empirical analysis of this operation, we show how to identify the secretive authors of these posts, the posts written by them, and their content. We estimate that the government fabricates and posts about 448 million social media comments a year. In contrast to prior claims, we show that the Chinese regime’s strategy is to avoid arguing with skeptics of the party and the government, and to not even discuss controversial issues. We show that the goal of this massive secretive operation is instead to distract the public and change the subject, as most of these posts involve cheerleading for China, the revolutionary history of the Communist Party, or other symbols of the regime. We discuss how these results fit with what is known about the Chinese censorship program and suggest how they may change our broader theoretical understanding of “common knowledge” and information control in authoritarian regimes.

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Pew Research Center. 2014. “The Political Typology: Beyond Red vs. Blue.” Pew Research. http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/26/the-political-typology-beyond-red-vs-blue/.
  2. Groves, 2011, Survey Methodology
  3. National Bureau of Statistics of China. 2014. China Statistical Year Book. Beijing, CN: China Statistics Press. http://j.mp/ChinaSY.
  4. Bandurski, 2008, China’s Guerrilla War for the Web, Far Eastern Economic Review, 171, 41
  5. 2009, China and the Internet: An Uphill Fight for Freedom, Harvard International Review, 31, 68

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Metadata

Authors
KING, G., PAN, J., & ROBERTS, M. E.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
Corresponding author
  • KING, GARY
  • PAN, JENNIFER
  • ROBERTS, MARGARET E.
ORCID
Venue
American Political Science Review
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2017-07-27
Volume
111
Issue
3
Pages
484-501
ISSN
  • 0003-0554 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5943
DOI
10.1017/s0003055417000144
OpenAlex
W2741445211
Cited by
1,028
References
67
Citations by year
2026: 60 · 2025: 111 · 2024: 115 · 2023: 141 · 2022: 158 · 2021: 118 · 2020: 114 · 2019: 84 · 2018: 84 · 2017: 38
FWCI
224.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • American Political Science Review (publishedVersion, public-domain)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
Keywords
Chinese government, social media manipulation, authorship attribution, censorship, information control, authoritarian regimes, common knowledge, communist parties, cheerleading

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