Early in his 2020 campaign, Michael Bloomberg took heat for paying 500 "deputy digital organizers" $2,500 a month to promote him through social media posts and texts to friends and family. Hillary Clinton was accused of something similar four years ago, and when Bernie Sanders cried foul, it soon became clear he had engaged in similar activity. This kind of social media manipulation has been standard operating procedure for quite some time among political campaigns.
When I started at Duke Law in 2004, several of my classmates were recently departed employees of different presidential campaigns. I learned from them that it was common for campaigns to hire college students to post comments on online news articles that spun the bad press of their candidate/employer while highlighting the good. It's not hard to detect these comments if you know what to look for. They always come across as eminently reasonable, and completely emotionless. There is a cut-copy-paste feel to these comments, which is understandable considering their authors are adapting their candidate's talking points across as many articles as they can.
While teaching college writing for five years, I used to train my students in the art of writing letters to the editor. Just as there is a formula to effective letters to the editor, there is a formula to comment-board spin. Political campaigns are expert in training their young acolytes in this language, for the purpose of protecting and promoting their candidate.
Frankly, I'm not entirely sure how damaging such comments are. I don't think there's much evidence Trump ever employed hired guns to soften his critics with calm, reasonable talking points. That's not really his style. On the whole, my experience is that most of these paid commenters use actual data and arguments to back up their candidates, leaving the readers to grapple with different versions of the facts on their own. Usually (but not always), these paid commenters are not lying, pretending, or inventing, they are just making sure no article against their candidate is allowed an uncontested slam dunk. Insidiousness level: Moderate.
A much bigger problem is China's government hijacking of our comment boards for their own propaganda and purposes. Let me be clear, China's people are wonderful, their government is not. Using thousands of fake online handles that lead back to no one and nowhere, the Chinese government's army of English-trained writers scour the news around the world for articles on China, and then inject the comment boards with thinly-veiled Chinese propaganda under the guise of sympathetic westerners.
China's government has been engaging in cross-border propaganda on a more official level for years. In 2018, the Chinese government paid for a 4 page insert in the Des Moines Register intended to turn Iowan farmers against Trump's tariffs. In calling out China's actions, an article in The Diplomat noted, "In trying to influence Iowans, the Chinese government has shown that it lacks any meaningful understanding of the deepest of American traditions, those of independent thought, action, and allegiance." The Chinese government's formal efforts to spread its propaganda in America and abroad are also discussed here and here. This article doesn't address those issues, but rather their hidden army of spin doctors. I have been studying China and North Korea for the past two years, and I was shocked to discover that most, if not all, online articles related to China have several commenters who appear to be paid Chinese government employees. Unfortunately, they make the political campaign part-timers seem like naive novices. Insidiousness level: Extreme.
These Chinese government manipulators always pretend to be westerners sympathetic to China, and always hit the same talking points. They talk about the U.S. murder rate, drug use, and homelessness. They talk about U.S. incarceration levels, and they talk about imperialism. Again and again, these points are drilled into their comments. They manipulate data and spin everything China's direction. They often attempt to seem reasonable, but even their concessions typically end up being backhanded compliments to Communist China. The Chinese government has used paid hacks to do this inside of China for years, where they are referred to as "Wumao." One of their biggest tells is that these commenters mistakenly conflate U.S. support for socialist policies with support for China.
Many conservatives often make the same mistake as these Chinese commenters. The vast majority of Millennials who support Bernie Sanders and other democratic socialists look only to the model of northern Europe. They support democracy and free markets, they just think the government should cover things like health care and education, as in some northern European countries. Anyone using China and Venezuela to argue against these Millennials is sure to encounter glazed eyes and dismissiveness. Few Sanders supporters admire China's iron-fisted policies. Now, whether more socialist policies are a slippery slope to an authoritarian regime, or whether Denmark's lack of a minimum wage should be adopted along with its universal healthcare, are discussions for another day. The point here is that Chinese spin doctors make the same mistake as many right wing conservatives: assuming that someone who wants universal health care is also willing to give up their freedom of speech and religion to an authoritarian regime.
So, what do we do about this onslaught from the Chinese government's hired guns? First, call them out. My experience is that whenever I cheerfully call them out, rather than defend themselves or provide proof of a real western existence, they just disappear. Next, take advantage of an opportunity to educate the individuals behind the masks about how we really feel about China.
Tell them that we love China's people, we just don't trust their government. We believe China's government should trust its wonderful people, and until their government does, we can't possibly trust China's government. Remind these hired commenters that since China claims to be earth's oldest civilization, that means no civilization has distrusted its own citizens longer than Chinese rulers. Ask them to free Chen Qiushi, a citizen journalist and lawyer who was recently put on house arrest for trying to report truthfully on the Coronavirus. Remind them that no country on earth ever trusted its own citizens faster than America. When they talk about western imperialism, remind them of all the free, democratic nations spun off by the UK and the U.S., and ask them to encourage their government to do the same for its own citizens.
We Americans may be imperfect, but at least here we get to try and fail and try again and do our best and improve and be ourselves, without the constant threat of house arrest. Here, people don't go to jail just for speaking their mind. Remind them that one of America's greatest innovations and exports is the ability to vehemently disagree with the leader of your own country without the threat of being punished. The Chinese government considers such ideas "western indoctrination," which is like saying the west brainwashes everyone to think for themselves. I'm pretty sure that is the exact opposite of "indoctrination." Invite these Chinese apparatchiks to imagine a world where they are free to think for themselves. How amazing would China be if its government empowered its wonderful people with free speech and free religion?!
A China like that would be incredible. And I for one am rooting for the Chinese people, and against Chinese president-for-life Xi Jinping. #WeAreAllRockets
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