The internet water army - paid online posters
A really fascinating study into the growing army of Chinese paid-posters on the internet is available from the Cornell University research archive.
In the research they stress early on that this study is based on Chinese websites, but that similar things happen in other countries too, like the UK and US, so it's not a case of China-bashing.
I guess this piqued my interest and disappointed me once again in the nature of human beings. Firstly, it seems like a case of governments and vested business interests hijacking tools that otherwise bring incredible benefit to average people.
Secondly, it threatens to completely undermine the value of information on the internet (as if the value of comments isn't low enough!). If alongside spam for viagra and watches, we're now being bombarded with government propoganda, then what's the point of engaging with other people online? It's like a zero-sum game where nobody wins in the long run.
Thirdly, it disappoints me that the American initiative reported in the Guardian is so blatently contrary to the principles of democracy which we should be upholding. I hate the fact that any online debate about China now is stifled by the '5 Mao Party' that trolls the comments sections, so I'm guessing that Afghans/Pakistanis/non-Americans would probably feel the same way.
But the basic gist of research like this is that everyone is doing it; China, America, Europe... it's such a shame.