Mary Gallagher

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A man on a mobile phone passes a portrait of Mao Zedong in Beijing on May 20, 2016. Mobile device usage and e-commerce are in wide use in China despite serious restrictions on Internet access. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

The Great Firewall of China, the vast hardware and software system the Chinese government uses to prevent access to certain Internet content, is often depicted as monolithic and Orwellian.

Our research uses new online analysis methods and reveals serious cracks. Although extensive, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) system of control over online social interaction is quite diffuse — and at times incoherent. New moves by Beijing, however, may be in line to shore up the Firewall.

Our analysis found many inconsistencies in government astroturfing, or faking “grass-roots” comments on news sites and social media. Using metadata from a database of more than 50 million posts on Chinese news websites, we identified government astroturfers (known colloquially as the Fifty Cent Party).…  Seguir leyendo »