Why does the Chinese government create millions of bogus social media posts?

The Chinese government does not like being criticized and goes to great lengths to quell dissenting voices that could weaken its stranglehold on the minds and bodies of its citizens. Among those practices is a recently uncovered program in which freelance commenters are paid 50 cents per post to flood online forums with pro-China sentiments.

A study conducted by Harvard University found that of nearly 43,800 posts, 99.3 percent were made by employees of the Chinese government working across 200 agencies. Researchers speculated that these comments came in bursts that coincided with politically sensitive periods.

“An argument in almost any human discussion is rarely an effective way to put an end to an opposing argument,” the researchers wrote. “Letting an argument die, or changing the subject, usually works much better than picking an argument and getting someone’s back up [as new parents recognize fast].”