Looking to make some extra cash on the side? Apparently you can do it by trolling for China. We’re pretty sure some people commenting on the Coconuts Hong Kong Facebook page are cleaning up! Just kidding. All comments are welcome.
According to a study called “Blocked on Weibo” by Chinese researcher Jason Q Ng, the phrase “50 cent” has been banned on Sina Weibo. Nope, not because that American rapper guy is posting pictures of himself with yellow umbrellas (he’s not actually doing that by the way), but because it refers to the so-called “50 Cent Party”, whereby ordinary citizens are paid to troll websites posting pro-China comments.
According to an article in the Business Insider, the under-the-table employees are reimbursed 50 cents (CYN0.5/ HKD0.6) per comment and work at all levels, sometimes for specific websites or even internet providers directly. According to the 2013 “American Political Science Review” from Harvard University, there is an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 trolls belonging to the Communist Party. But we can’t trust Harvard, right, as they’re surely part of the US conspiracy against China.
However, in 2011 the China Digital Times released a leaked directive that instructed 50 Cent members to bad-mouth America, play down the existence of Taiwan and to frame democracy as an “invasion” by Western powers. Sound familiar?
In 2012, British magazine the New Statesman also claimed to have tracked down a 50 Center, who said he received instructions about which news to focus on each morning and had more usernames than he could count.
So with the “Great Firewall of China”, dozens of rule-breaking netizens and journalists being arrested, paid pro-China trolls and now even Coconuts Hong Kong blocked in the mainland (toot toot!), those living in China proper are going to have to work pretty damn hard to get corrupted.
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