50 Cent Party / Wumao

Submission 22,877

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Editor's Note: Not to be confused with the American hip hop artist 50 Cent.

About

The 50 Cent Party (五毛党, English: wǔmáo dǎng), also known as 50 Cent Army, is the unofficial name of for-hire Internet commentators who are recruited by the propaganda authorities of the Chinese government to produce and promote positive messages that support various interests and agendas of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC). The commenters are often referred to as "Wumao" (5 dimes in Chinese), as they are rumored to be paid approximately ¥0.50 for every post on social media.

Online History

In October 2004, one of the earliest known recruitment and mobilization of online commentators for propaganda was undertaken by the Publicity Department of Changsha, the capital of China's southern-central province Hunan. According to an investigative report conducted and published by the Publicity Department of Hefei in 2006, Changsha's municipal government hired an unknown number of online forum and community members to proliferate pro-CPC opinions, and conversely, suppress criticisms of the government, for a monthly stipend of 600 yuan (appx. $100 USD). Hunan Province has been since cited as the pioneer of the mobilization of the “Fifty Cent Party” by various state-run news media outlets.

In March 2005, China's Ministry of Education enacted a systematic censorship of Chinese college bulletin board systems (BBS), which led to the shutdown of the popular online forum Little Lilly run by Nanjing University. As the school officials began preparing to launch a new system in compliance with the new laws, they hired an unknown number of students as part-time commentators to search the forum for comments and opinions that are deemed as critical of the CPC and counter them with rebuttals that are aligned with the Party's interests.

In April 2005, the CPC officials of Jiangsu, China's eastern coastal province, implemented a similar program to hire a team of at least 26 online commentators. In early 2006, Shanghai Normal University hired more than 500 students as part-time commentators on its ostensibly voluntary-based Internet monitoring team, which was reported on by the New York times on May 9th.

On January 23rd, 2007, Chinese leader Hu Jintao asked for a "reinforcement of ideological and public opinion front construction and positive publicity" during the 38th collective learning of Politburo. In complying with Hu's directive, the CPC's Central Committee and General Office of the State Council requested several highly-trafficked online forums, as well as the authorities of various municipal and local governments, to form "teams of Internet commentators" for service towards that end.

By mid-2007, similar online propaganda and public opinion monitoring groups had been established by universities and party organizations across the country, including the Government of Golog in Qinghai province, the Provincial Government of Sichuan

In June 2007, the Public Security Bureau of Jiaozuo in Henan province formed an online task force of 35 commentators recruited from various state-run media institutions and outlets, as well as more than 120 police officers with excellent communications skills, to monitor, screen and report negative opinions about the city's police department.

Etymology

The names associated with the group, the "50 Cent Party" and "50-Centers," are derived from details about the compensation of the employees in state official documents, which state that commentators are to be paid 0.5 yuan (or five jiǎo) in Renminbi for every post. According to a report filed by the Propaganda Department of Anhui Province in 2006:

[…] Besides the basic monthly wage, the commentators will receive extra payment from each post, which is counted at RMB 50 cents.

Scale of Operations

While many specific details surrounding the state-official group, including its operational procedures and organizational structure, remain unknown, there have been a number of estimations as to the size of the workforce, which range from "tens of thousands" to as many as 300,000 workers across the country. In 2009, China's Ministry of Culture implemented a formal recruiting process for online commentators hired by the government, which includes an examination, regular training sessions and issuance of a job certification, while the Information Office began instructing every large-scale Chinese website to form a team of trained commentators. In May 2016, Harvard University researchers published a report titled "How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument,"^[13] which offers an in-depth profile of online activities and other propaganda campaigns undertaken by the Chinese government's "50 Cent Party" based on their analysis of state-official documents leaked from the Chinese government. Among other findings, the report estimates that the Chinese government fabricates about 448 million social media posts every year (or one in every 178 comments on Chinese social media sites).