Chinese government produces 448 million 'fake' internet posts a year, study claims

The study claims the army of commenters exists to distract other internet users from news critical of the Communist Party

Chinese police officers surf the internet in Beijing in 2000 (GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty Images)

The Chinese government produces 488 million 'fake' social media posts a year to distract citizens from news critical of the Communist Party, a new study has revealed.

According to the study, written by Harvard University professor Gary King, the goal of the secretive army of commenters is to "distract the public and change the subject" in online discussions which paint the government in a negative light.

The study is reportedly the first of its kind to show concrete evidence of the existence of the '50 Cent Party', a name which references the 50 cents each worker is thought to be paid for a post.

During the study, co-authored by Stanford University's Jennifer Pan and UC San Diego's Margaret E. Roberts, machine learning techniques were used to analyse millions of social media posts, based on leaked emails and databases which detail the work of the group.

The research revealed co-ordinated commenting efforts, usually timed to coincide with government announcements or patriotic public holidays. Around half the posts were comments on government websites, while the rest were posted to social media sites like Sina Weibo, one of China's most popular websites.

The 50 Cent Party was previously thought to have worked by engaging in arguments, constantly defending the Communist Party and its leaders against online critics.

The study suggested the opposite, however, claiming the party "engages in almost no argument of any kind and is instead devoted primarily to distraction through cheerleading for the state, symbols of the regime, or the revolutionary history of the Community Party."

It also suggested that most 50 Cent Party members are not ordinary citizens paid for their work, as previously thought, but are government employees writing posts and comments as part of their normal jobs.

While the researchers acknowledge that their study rests heavily on the truth of the leaked emails and databases, they say "the size and extraordinary complexity of this archive makes it highly likely to be real."

They believe that their study may shine a light on the secret government program, helping other researchers discover different aspects of it in China or other authoritarian countries.