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China fakes 488 million social media comments each year

Written by Ben Blaschke

It’s hardly a secret that Chinese authorities manipulate the messages its citizens receive through various media channels, but thanks to Harvard University we now have an idea just how much!

As reported by Bloomberg, a mathematical study conducted by three Harvard scholars has concluded the Chinese Government fabricates a whopping 488 million social media posts per year in order to distract the populace from bad news and sensitive political issues.

That equates to one in every 178 posts on China’s various social media channels.

The scholars, led by Gary King, built a customized computer code that was able to crack into and analyze an archive of information that was accidentally leaked in 2013 and 2014. As a result they discovered a coordinated history of propaganda posts including the names of their authors and the companies they worked for.

King chose not to publish the authors’ personal details but revealed more than half worked for government agencies. All of which supports that old mantra, “Don’t believe everything you read!”