Alleged YouTube of Chinese expression Wu Mao (五毛) which is said to be the name for "CCP propaganda division". And it is blocked.

But then I find this - can anyone with *actual* knowledge of Chinese confirm?

baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94

Wu Mao

Fifty cents, a buzzword on the Internet, mostly refers to posting a post in the forum for money. The reason why it is called the five cents is because the earliest posters, in addition to the base salary, pay a salary of fifty cents per post.

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@kravietz
There are certainly paid CCP propaganda. But there is no official confirmation of its existence.

I don't know what you want to confirm tho. The wiki entry on Baidu Baike? It is a terrible source for info.

@alteredEnvoy

This is precisely why I asked "can anyone with *actual* knowledge of Chinese confirm".

@kravietz
Fair enough. Ppl can only piece together info from leaked docs, screenshots, and rumours that Wu Mao exists. IIRC they are indeed named 50 cents for being payed that much for each post.

Rumours have it that they are serving their time in prison and hoping to get commutation. Other evidence pointed at contractors that sway public opinions, like those Twitter banned last year.

@alteredEnvoy

You mean the Baidu page? But according to you say this comes out to be a half-truth at best as it doesn't mention the political aspect of it...

@kravietz @alteredEnvoy In my corners of the internet, the fifty-cent army exclusively refers to CCP posters, not just any random paid poster.

That wouldn't be the Baidu definition of the term, obviously.

@kravietz
So Baidu Baike is generally terrible. Most of its sources are terrible and there is basically no editing.

But from the limited info presented on THIS page, I cannot point out anything ostensibly wrong. (Maybe the part about the salary raise)

It is certainly not complete for various reasons, censorship for one, and that there is no active community behind Baike to maintain its wiki pages.

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