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Engineers of the Troll
Government departments in China have a variety of specialized software at their disposal to
shape what the public sees online. One maker of such software, Urun, has won at least two dozen
contracts with local agencies and state-owned enterprises since 2016, government procurement
records show.
According to an analysis of computer code and documents from Urun, the company’s products can
track online trends, coordinate censorship activity and manage fake social media accounts for
posting comments.
One Urun software system gives government workers a slick, easy-to-use interface for quickly
adding likes to posts. Managers can use the system to assign specific tasks to commenters.
The software can also track how many tasks a commenter has completed and how much that person
should be paid.
According to one document describing the software, commenters in the southern city of Guangzhou
are paid $25 for an original post of longer than 400 characters. Flagging a negative comment for
deletion earns them 40 cents. Reposts are worth one cent apiece.
Urun makes a smartphone app that streamlines their work. They receive tasks within the app, post
the requisite comments from their personal social media accounts, then upload a screenshot,
ostensibly to certify that the task was completed.
The company also makes video game-like software that helps train commenters, documents show.
The software splits a group of users into two teams, one red and one blue, and pits them against
each other to see which can produce more popular posts.
Other Urun code is designed to monitor Chinese social media for “harmful information.”
Workers can use keywords to find posts that mention sensitive topics, such as “incidents
involving leadership” or “national political affairs.” They can also manually tag posts for
further review.
In Hangzhou, officials appear to have used Urun software to scan the Chinese internet for
keywords like “virus” & “pneumonia” in conjunction with place names, according to company data.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and Urun did not respond to requests for comment.
Source:
https://www.propublica.org/article/leaked-documents-show-how-chinas-army-of-paid-internet-trolls-helped-censor-the-coronavirus?x-craft-preview=eKDkwGvIz4&token=TqCXx_TJ9LQ2PSUPOaJEkhp9bJuUIWPN
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