On ‘Water Armies’ and Astroturfed Morality

[Randy W]

On ‘Water Armies’ and Astroturfed Morality
Can traditional values — think humanism and benevolence rather than filial piety and patriotism — heal the divides on the Chinese internet?

from the Sixth Tone

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Two years ago, an elementary school teacher in Guangzhou found herself at the center of a social media firestorm after the mother of one of her students accused her of carrying out a brutal form of corporal punishment.

The evidence, including a bloody shirt, was damning, and the mother’s post on microblogging platform Weibo quickly attracted widespread attention. By noon, a topic page devoted to the incident was sitting at the top of Weibo’s trending charts with nearly 600 million views. The teacher’s personal information was promptly published by angry social media users, and the school, buckling to public pressure, put her on leave.

There was just one problem: It was all a hoax. The mother, who had a prior dispute with the teacher, had paid 500 yuan ($70) to an online troll army — known in China as “water armies,” or shuijun — for 100,000 followers, plus another 260 yuan for 20,000 likes and 10,000 reposts. After that, the algorithm did its work, and almost immediately a fake troll army became a real one.