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The Freeman
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- Jan 21, 2004
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7783640.stm
I remenber when the tibet riots where happening in a forum of military pictures and photos I go sometimes,there was a surge of chinese menbers posting tons of pro china posts and such
I remenber there was one who posted about the freedom the people in china have
and them some asked that if chinese people is so free them why they get jailed if they made a negative coment about the comunist party
the chinese poster didnt answered the questiong but went posting things like "I dont understand your questiong/why would someone say that of the party blabla"
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.
Chinese leaders seem aware that the internet - the only public forum where views can be freely expressed - needs close attention.
China's Communist Party leaders have long sought to sway public opinion by controlling what the media can report.
That policy was extended to the internet, and many websites are blocked by a system sometimes dubbed the "great firewall of China".
Rumours and opinions
But cyberspace - where views can be expressed instantly and anonymously - is not as easy to control as traditional news outlets.
[They] need to possess relatively good political and professional qualities, and have a pioneering and enterprising spirit
Extract from internal document produced by Nanning city authority, Guangxi province
Comments, rumours and opinions can be quickly spread between internet groups in a way that makes it hard for the government to censor.
So instead of just trying to prevent people from having their say, the government is also attempting to change they way they think.
Spin machine
A document released by the public security bureau in the city of Jiaozuo in Henan province boasts of the success of this approach.
It retells the story of one disgruntled citizen who posted an unfavourable comment about the police on a website after being punished for a traffic offence.
One of the bureau's internet commentators reported this posting to the authorities within 10 minutes of it going up.
The bureau then began to spin, using more than 120 people to post their own comments that neatly shifted the debate.
"Twenty minutes later, most postings supported the police - in fact many internet users began to condemn the original commentator," said the report.
I remenber when the tibet riots where happening in a forum of military pictures and photos I go sometimes,there was a surge of chinese menbers posting tons of pro china posts and such
I remenber there was one who posted about the freedom the people in china have
and them some asked that if chinese people is so free them why they get jailed if they made a negative coment about the comunist party
the chinese poster didnt answered the questiong but went posting things like "I dont understand your questiong/why would someone say that of the party blabla"