# Incident I00033: China 50cent Army

* **Summary:** 50cent Army is a CCP “tool” - “massive secret operation” in China pumping out an estimated 488 million fabricated social media posts per year, part of an effort to “regularly distract the public and change the subject” from any policy-related issues that threaten to anger citizens enough to turn them out onto the streets. But the research finds no evidence these 50-centers are, in fact, paid 50 cents, nor does it find they engage in direct and angry argument with their opponents. Instead, they are mostly bureaucrats already on the public payroll, responding to government directives at a time of heightened tension to flood social media with pro-government cheerleading.

* **incident type**: apt

* **Year started:** 2014

* **Countries:** China , China

* **Found via:** OII

* **Date added:** 2019-02-24
 

| Technique | Description given for this incident |
| --------- | ------------------------- |
| [T0002 Facilitate State Propaganda](../generated_pages/techniques/T0002.md) | IT00000110 facilitate state propaganda and defuse crises |
| [T0047 Censor social media as a political force](../generated_pages/techniques/T0047.md) | IT00000108 cow online opinion leaders into submission, muzzling social media as a political force |
| [T0048 Harass](../generated_pages/techniques/T0048.md) | IT00000109 cow online opinion leaders into submission, muzzling social media as a political force |
| [T0049 Flooding the Information Space](../generated_pages/techniques/T0049.md) | IT00000105 2,000,000 people (est.) part of state run/sponsored astroturfing |


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