{"id":51254,"date":"2020-02-20T21:15:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T02:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=51254"},"modified":"2020-02-20T21:15:38","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T02:15:38","slug":"chinese-regime-deploys-1600-online-trolls-to-suppress-information-on-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=51254","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Regime Deploys 1,600 Online Trolls To Suppress Information On Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chinese Regime Deploys 1,600 Online Trolls To Suppress Information On Coronavirus<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The propaganda department in virus-stricken Hubei<\/a> Province has engaged over 1,600 censors to scrub the internet of \u201csensitive\u201d information relating to the coronavirus<\/a> outbreak,<\/strong> according to an internal document obtained by The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The internal report, dated Feb. 15, detailed the agency\u2019s efforts to ramp up censorship<\/a> measures. It was drafted after a speech given by Chinese leader Xi Jinping via video link on Feb. 10 to \u201cfrontline responders\u201d of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, where the virus first broke out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revelations come as the Chinese regime tightens information controls over the worsening outbreak, as netizens have increasingly turned to the internet to vent their frustrations about the authorities\u2019 response, or document what is happening on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The illness has seen a steadily growing official list of infections and deaths on a daily basis. Experts and commentators, however, believe the actual number of infections to be far greater, due to underreporting and shortages in testing kits and hospital beds\u2014meaning many people are left undiagnosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1,600 Trolls Deployed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the document, the department has hired more than 1,600 trolls, known as the 50-cent army in China, to regulate internet speech continuously, 24\/7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trolls, through technological and manual screening, had identified as many as 606,800 posts online with \u201csensitive or harmful information,\u201d it said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their approach, it said, was to \u201ctimely dispel the online rumors\u201d and \u201cstrike powerful blows offline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Feb. 14, the online censors had deleted as many as 54,000 such \u201crumors,\u201d and had social media influencers write nearly 400 commentary articles to shape the narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regime\u2019s propaganda efforts, the report said, should be directed toward promoting the effects of officials\u2019 outbreak control measures and the \u201cmoving deeds\u201d of volunteers, community workers, and the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some professional \u201cinternet commentators\u201d had also made 400,000 comments to \u201ccounter the negative public opinions,\u201d according to the document.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese Regime Deploys 1,600 Online Trolls To Suppress Information On Coronavirus The propaganda department in virus-stricken Hubei Province has engaged over 1,600 censors to scrub the internet of \u201csensitive\u201d information relating to the coronavirus outbreak, according to an internal document obtained by The Epoch Times. The internal report, dated Feb. 15, detailed the agency\u2019s efforts to ramp up censorship measures. It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[29066,120,28817,29067,1339,29068,655,16350,7258,4318],"class_list":["post-51254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-liberty","tag-cathy-he","tag-censorship","tag-coronavirus","tag-eva-fu","tag-internet","tag-online-trolls","tag-propaganda","tag-the-epoch-times","tag-viral-outbreak","tag-zerohedge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51255,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51254\/revisions\/51255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}