280,000 pro-China astroturfers are running amok online
Found on Ars Technica on Thursday, 25 March 2010
The government increasingly combines censorship and surveillance measures with pro-active efforts to steer online conversations in the direction it prefers.
Known derisively as the "fifty cent party," these people are paid to write postings that show their employers in a favorable light in online chat rooms, social networking services, blogs, and comments sections of news websites.
Looking good costs them quite a bit of money. Not that anybody would buy what those turfers write, but the politicians on the top don't care about that little detail. They just want to be able to point at comments and say "see, so many like our country".