{"id":29852,"date":"2008-12-16T19:24:10","date_gmt":"2008-12-17T02:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=29852"},"modified":"2008-12-16T20:52:43","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T03:52:43","slug":"chinas-internet-spin-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/12\/chinas-internet-spin-doctors\/","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s Internet &#8216;Spin Doctors&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/asia-pacific\/7783640.stm\">BBC News<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>China is using an increasing number of paid &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/chinagfw.blogspot.com\/search\/label\/Internet%20commentator\">internet commentators<\/a>&#8221; in a sophisticated attempt to control public opinion.<\/p>\n<p>These commentators are used by government departments to scour the internet for bad news &#8211; and then negate it.<\/p>\n<p>They post comments on websites and forums that spin bad news into good in an attempt to shape public opinion.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese leaders seem aware that the internet &#8211; the only public forum where views can be freely expressed &#8211; needs close attention. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read more about the Internet commentators, or &#8220;Fifty Cent Party,&#8221; via CDT <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/05\/chinese-bloggers-on-the-history-and-influence-of-the-fifty-cent-party\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/10\/cyber-police-try-to-avoid-mass-incident-with-a-preemptive-post\/\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From BBC News: China is using an increasing number of paid &#8220;internet commentators&#8221; in a sophisticated attempt to control public opinion. These commentators are used by government departments to scour the internet for bad news &#8211; and then negate it. They post comments on websites and forums that spin bad news into good in an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,100],"tags":[6829,6304,4667],"class_list":["post-29852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-revolution","category-politics","tag-internet-commentators","tag-internet-control","tag-online-public-opinion","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>China&#039;s Internet &#039;Spin Doctors&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/12\/chinas-internet-spin-doctors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China&#039;s Internet &#039;Spin Doctors&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From BBC News: China is using an increasing number of paid &#8220;internet commentators&#8221; in a sophisticated attempt to control public opinion. These commentators are used by government departments to scour the internet for bad news &#8211; and then negate it. They post comments on websites and forums that spin bad news into good in an [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/12\/chinas-internet-spin-doctors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-17T02:24:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-12-17T03:52:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"186\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"177\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Liu Yong\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Liu Yong\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/12\/chinas-internet-spin-doctors\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/12\/chinas-internet-spin-doctors\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Liu Yong\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/bde859fa557a468c7a4b1a9d9db2b46c\"},\"headline\":\"China&#8217;s Internet &#8216;Spin 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