26.1.4. Wumao (五毛)
50 Cent Party, 五毛党, Wumao Dang:
They can be classified as a form of information warfare (信息战).
A wise person once said:
It is impossible to distinguish wumaos, idiots and brain washed people. So we just call all of them wumaos.
But of course, the CCP is a cult (and democracy, a religion), and therefore any discussion is also pointless in general.
To a large extent, wumao’s goals are to dilute useful conversation with shit, normally The CCP exaggerates the threat of the West to keep in power (中共夸大了西方要继续掌权的威胁) and Western democracies are not perfect (西方的民主有很多缺点).
This leads to endless idiotic conversions of type:
You: Chinese friend, your house is on fire, let’s try to put the fire out!
Wumao: I don’t care, your house is also on fire!
You: that’s true, that fire is also very serious, and I’m trying to put it out!
Wumao: look everyone, his house is on fire! Mine isn’t!
Therefore, it is crucial to have a working algorithmic policy to handle them: How to deal with wumaos (如何应对五毛).
Notable wumaos should be investigated by intelligence agencies.
If it is determined that they are knowingly funded by China, they should be put into jail as foreign agents.
There is a tradeoff between privacy rights and snuffing out wumaos, and it is hard to decide where to set the line. But snuffing out wumaos is important, and must be done.
If we were to give up on privacy completely, one possible rule would be: block anyone that lives in China and whose revenue therefore cannot be investigated properly by your government to determine if they are funded by the CCP.
Here are some people completely against blocking wumaos. Those silly Democrats never prepare well enough for war:
-
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/opinion/how-to-counter-chinas-global-propaganda-offensive.html
-
it mentions the "Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016" https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2692, which is exactly what Western countries should do
The Baidu Baike (百度百科, Chinese censored Wikipedia clone) definition of wumao https://baike.baidu.com/item/五毛/24163406 (archive)) is priceless:
五毛，网络流行语，指收钱为某单位在网络上说好话的人
Fifty cents, an internet buzzword, refers to people who collect money for a certain unit to say good things on the Internet
"Good". And not mention of the CCP in the article, of course.
Other names:
-
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/网军 (online army), example: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Soft_Job/M.1478104872.A.916.html "Github也出現網軍了嗎?" (Is there an emerging wumao army on GitHub?) on PTT Bulletin Board System (Taiwanese message board, 批踢踢實業坊)
Bibliography:
-
2020-03-12 https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1238076579466674178 Jennifer Zeng (曾錚, pro-Falun Gong media)'s publishing of purported Wumao guidelines with translation. Translated title: "CAC (Cyberspace Administration of China) Internal Documentation for Internet Commentators (no spreading)"
-
2018-09-27 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCnnPf2OnHo "Chinese Internet Trolls Get Paid 50 Cents For Every Comment" by laowhy86
-
2017-04-09 https://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf "How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument" by "Gary King, Jennifer Pan, Margaret E. Roberts"
-
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/files-05202015150018.html
-
2015-05-20 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/files-05202015150018.html "Hackers Leak Files Showing Inner Workings of 'China’s 50-Cent Army'", hacker group name "Unicorn Nocturne". TODO material, silly reporters that don’t give links
-
2014 emails of some Wumaos were hacked/phished and leaked at https://xiaolan.me/50-cent-party-jxgzzg.html (down, no web archive, but https://archive.is/BNNQe) revealing operational details
毛 (mao2) is a colloquial form of 角 (jiao3) both meaning "one-tenth". Coins actually use 角. See also:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renminbi#Coins The fourth and fifth series Wikipedia currently have a 50 cent picture:
-
https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/8355/角-毛-10-cents-for-money-why
-
In other sections:
Figure 264. 50-cent coin (五角) from the fourth series of renminbi (第四套人民币, 1987-1997). This image is going to be very useful. Note the beautiful plum blossom drawings reminiscent of Chinese traditional painting (中国传统绘画) which Ciro Santilli (三西猴, anti-CCP fanatic, 反中共狂热, stupid cunt, 傻屄, CIA agent, CIA特工, 肏你妈的) loves. Note how it uses 角 (jiao3) instead of 毛 (mao2). Source.
50 Cent Party, 五毛党, Wumao Dang:
They can be classified as a form of information warfare (信息战).
A wise person once said:
It is impossible to distinguish wumaos, idiots and brain washed people. So we just call all of them wumaos.
But of course, the CCP is a cult (and democracy, a religion), and therefore any discussion is also pointless in general.
To a large extent, wumao’s goals are to dilute useful conversation with shit, normally The CCP exaggerates the threat of the West to keep in power (中共夸大了西方要继续掌权的威胁) and Western democracies are not perfect (西方的民主有很多缺点).
This leads to endless idiotic conversions of type:
You: Chinese friend, your house is on fire, let’s try to put the fire out!
Wumao: I don’t care, your house is also on fire!
You: that’s true, that fire is also very serious, and I’m trying to put it out!
Wumao: look everyone, his house is on fire! Mine isn’t!
Therefore, it is crucial to have a working algorithmic policy to handle them: How to deal with wumaos (如何应对五毛).
Notable wumaos should be investigated by intelligence agencies.
If it is determined that they are knowingly funded by China, they should be put into jail as foreign agents.
There is a tradeoff between privacy rights and snuffing out wumaos, and it is hard to decide where to set the line. But snuffing out wumaos is important, and must be done.
If we were to give up on privacy completely, one possible rule would be: block anyone that lives in China and whose revenue therefore cannot be investigated properly by your government to determine if they are funded by the CCP.
Here are some people completely against blocking wumaos. Those silly Democrats never prepare well enough for war:
-
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/opinion/how-to-counter-chinas-global-propaganda-offensive.html
-
it mentions the "Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016" https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2692, which is exactly what Western countries should do
-
The Baidu Baike (百度百科, Chinese censored Wikipedia clone) definition of wumao https://baike.baidu.com/item/五毛/24163406 (archive)) is priceless:
五毛，网络流行语，指收钱为某单位在网络上说好话的人
Fifty cents, an internet buzzword, refers to people who collect money for a certain unit to say good things on the Internet
"Good". And not mention of the CCP in the article, of course.
Other names:
-
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/网军 (online army), example: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Soft_Job/M.1478104872.A.916.html "Github也出現網軍了嗎?" (Is there an emerging wumao army on GitHub?) on PTT Bulletin Board System (Taiwanese message board, 批踢踢實業坊)
Bibliography:
-
2020-03-12 https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1238076579466674178 Jennifer Zeng (曾錚, pro-Falun Gong media)'s publishing of purported Wumao guidelines with translation. Translated title: "CAC (Cyberspace Administration of China) Internal Documentation for Internet Commentators (no spreading)"
-
2018-09-27 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCnnPf2OnHo "Chinese Internet Trolls Get Paid 50 Cents For Every Comment" by laowhy86
-
2017-04-09 https://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf "How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument" by "Gary King, Jennifer Pan, Margaret E. Roberts"
-
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/files-05202015150018.html
-
2015-05-20 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/files-05202015150018.html "Hackers Leak Files Showing Inner Workings of 'China’s 50-Cent Army'", hacker group name "Unicorn Nocturne". TODO material, silly reporters that don’t give links
-
2014 emails of some Wumaos were hacked/phished and leaked at https://xiaolan.me/50-cent-party-jxgzzg.html (down, no web archive, but https://archive.is/BNNQe) revealing operational details
毛 (mao2) is a colloquial form of 角 (jiao3) both meaning "one-tenth". Coins actually use 角. See also:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renminbi#Coins The fourth and fifth series Wikipedia currently have a 50 cent picture:
-
https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/8355/角-毛-10-cents-for-money-why
In other sections: