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China

50-cent Watchlist

By thomascrampton ⋅ July 27, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I have decided to start a list of commenters who are possibly 50-cent propagandists paid by the Beijing government.

Alternately, they are just unpaid Chinese nationalists who degrade themselves by using crude language.

Either way, they have commented on my blog or YouTube channel in a manner that is rude enough for me to remove their comment, but I wanted to preserve their names for posterity along with the part that is fit to publish.

Anyone is welcome to add to this watchlist in the comments below, but be sure to provide links so we can identify them. I would particularly welcome other comments by these same people. Be great to build a library.

I welcome these commenters to put new comments again as long as they do not degrade themselves or this blog with crudeness.

Comments on Beijing Olympics Advice from ex-CNN journalist
iamfumanchu
Comment (edited to remove crudeness): So concerned.. Just f—ing stay.. You are not welcome.. REPORT ABOUT
THE ISSUES IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD… That is just so pathetic!!! RACIST c—

Balflear255: thats just bull—-

Comment on Oiwan Lam: China’s 50-cent Twitter Censors
electronixtar: Twitter is ad-hoc messaging service, decentralized, it’s hard to track the source, and it’s not use to hire someone the spread prapagonda. Cauze no one will follow a twitterer full of b—–.

This is the note I am sending them after deleting their comment:

Thank you for your comment. I have deleted it due to the crude words in it. I did, however, preserve your name and printable parts of the comment in a blog posting called “50-cent Watchlist” that you can see here.

Feel free to comment again in a manner that does not degrade my blog or yourself.

electronixtar replied to my message: You will delete my comments anyway. No matter crude words or not.

I assured this person that I would allow any comments posted that are not crude.

Now, a reply from Balflear255: hello
apperently you dont like and cannot take my first comment,so that you deleted it and then sent me a msg to “warn” me. although your words are pretended to be somehow kind of polite and titled as “thank you”,the action of deleting my comment is still another kind of a censorship if you ask me,just in a very passive aggressive way tho.i guess the chinese government has the same rights as you do — to delete something they dont like in there own territory,and both of you did use that “right”.

so dont judge on them,you guys are no better than them.and when i was saying “thats b—-” in my first comment,thats how i really feel when i finished watching your video and i am not attacking anyone by comment on what they are, i just dunt like what they do. if you cannot take this one again, feel free to delete it too, but i am afraid that i will post it again, since i was told that i have a “freedom of speech” here and you dont need to pretent to be “polite” this time if you dunt like me.

My reply: Balflear: Why would I delete reasonable comments that are not crude?

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Discussion

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Comments for “50-cent Watchlist”

  • I definetly think your blog is interesting, and really people should know how the CCP truly is.
    My blog is specialized in China, and Human Rights abuses lead in that country, that deserves much better than a dictatorship and communist regime.

    People should know that most part of the chinese who are making the products we buy for so cheap are actually in labor camps, and most of them are truly innocent, and "conscience prisoniers".

    The world should also know that since 1999 Falun Gong, which is a peacfule practice for mind and body, Bouddhist in nature, is persecuted strongly.
    In 2006, we even discovered that Falun Gong practioners are used for a large Organ Harvesting, illegaly, orchestred by the regime itself, "under the table", witnesses risked their lives to speak out !

    And our medias, where are they??? Why they don't believe these horrors?

    When people hear for the first time the nazi regime was "burning" the jewish comunity, noone believed it, until they saw the vast and large amount of shoes, and hair and gold teeth.

    So we need to wait for what??? Us, internet users, seeking for the truth, we should stand for it, and cherish our freedom of speach and believes !

    Thanks so much for posting very interesting videos !

    http://justiceinchina.blogspot.com/

    www.myspace.com/justiceinchina

    www.ifjc.org
  • Dan
    I was hoping you would actually list their names for the benefit of all bloggers. Oh well.

    I just delete crude comments without an email; I no longer have any mercy.
  • Inst
    I'm referring to Youtube comments, not the web at large.

    But this video is an interesting example of anti-Americanism

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opC7ycUyz4o

    This one is anti-American, but the director seems fairly intelligent and thus off the Euro-trash zone.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoMCEKuPFGU
  • erka
    @lnst
    Eurotrash variety? Anti-americanism of Eurotrash variety? hu?
    What's that? with 30 hits on google, you're frame of reference seems a bit weak (or sick)...

    Maybe you meant anti europeanism of american white trash.
    Sounds much more accurate.
  • @Inst

    Yes, there's plenty of places to look for flame wars!

    Actually, an unintended consequence of this posting has been a great conversation (via email in private) with several of those people formerly flaming my comments.

    By openly stating my intention to make dialogue more reasonable, I began new conversations.

    This has been a fruitful posting!
  • Inst
    I don't understand what you're trying to achieve with Youtube. Youtube is possibly the least intelligent discussion forum on the internet. If you're offended at what you perceive to be Chinese nationalists, just surf around and look for Israeli-Palestinian flame wars, people who think Jews did WTC, and anti-Americanism of the Eurotrash variety.

    You may be able to sanitize your section of Youtube, but it will really be like trying to dike out an island above the Marianas Trench.
  • balflear255
    your so welcome

    glad to see that you r not deleting everything that you consider to be "crude" -- you r so in love with that word arent you? ive seen you saying it like what 2000 times today and in case you forgot, you just put some ppl in such a offensive list without any evidence. i have to say that you surely r a responsible media guy who is not crude at all. seriously dude.
  • wow, what a bunch of 'gentleman' discussion going on here.

    If I am a 'nationalist' in your language, then I am proud to be.

    If pro-government looks all 50-cent to you, then just keep thinking in that way.
  • Balflear,

    Great to have your comment on the blog and not just crude comments.

    Welcome to the discussion.
  • balflear255
    wow you do have this little watch list!!!
    i thought you were joking, i am so sorry that i overrated your sense of humor

    and how do you tell that i am a so-called-by-you 50 cents or whatever? because i think that you r bullshitting?

    you r really smart aint you? hope you can have a chinese free day. oh.. sorry, i forgot that you r in china now

    peace :p
  • @Alex

    Did not know that site. Very interesting!!

    Thanks!
  • AlexBowman
    Edit in response to the Disqus Terms of Service.
  • @kaiser

    I guess I have not delved into the nationalism-meets-Internet theme enough to be bored or jaded by it yet.

    Do I think I can single-handedly stop it? Of course not! I do hope to learn more about the phenomenon and motivations, however.

    Wonderful thing about blogs is they give you first-hand experience that other mediums would not allow.
  • fonstuinstra
    If crudeness would be a criteria to identify government-paid commentators, life would be very easy. While I do think the feature of government-paid exist, I do expect them to be polite and mostly operational on a rather local level, at least that is suggested by some examples I read about already some years ago. Relatively few things are directed by the central government and I estimate that this feature is also mostly a rather diverse local one, focusing mostly on Chinese language bbs's.
  • Kaiser
    IP sniffing? You'd most likely sniff out some pimply post-adolescent with a PC and ideological strands battling each other for control of his mind like the hormones raging for mastery of his body. Seems like a tactic the for "the other side." Really, making a YouTube account takes 30 seconds, not much work at all when you really feel like getting something off your chest. You know the atmosphere these days: easy to pile on the "attack-the-insensitive-western-journo" bandwagon. Think this is going to reduce the incidence? This whole "wumao dang" thing is so grossly inflated. Easy to write off the anger as just payola. We both know it's really there, and that it derives from a basic insecurity that's really easy to understand with even a basic grasp of modern Chinese history. Need we act so shocked and indignant?
  • @kaiser Yes, I don't the government really cares about what I say, but it is interesting to look where the critical comments come from.

    Those making the strongest comments appear to create YouTube accounts for the purpose of one or two comments.

    That seems like a lot of work to make a comment!

    Wonder if they are underemployed workers or bored students.

    Has anyone ever done IP sniffing of nationalist comments?
  • Kaiser
    Oh, c'mon Tom, you're acting as thin-skinned as these hypernationalistic kids. And I'm inclined to think you're flattering yourself a bit here. Find something better to do with your time! Good seeing you in Hong Kong, looking forward to getting together again.
  • You have every right to exclude such comments from your blog and Youtube accounts.

    I don't think they are 50-cent related - surely they would have to show a certain degree of intelligence to be paid by the government?!
  • I still feel amazed that people in PRC could be "Nationalist" !!

    Something is so wrong in what I just said, isn't it ?

    How could people who kicked out "Nationalist" in 49, could be now "nationalist" while being "Communist" (even if "Communism" is just a word, no more a reality) ?

    Chinese people are definitely an enigm :)
  • @cu: Yes, you are probably right. I do enjoy the exercise of building a library of them, however.
  • cu
    i really doubt that the chinese government cares what you say. you are flattering yourself to think they do.

    no doubt these twits are just underemployed jingoist boobs
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thomascramptonconf

Thomas Crampton was a correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times for more than a decade, reporting from five continents, writing a column on Asia and covering Asian politics, economics and culture. Currently based in Hong Kong, he writes here about China, the Internet and New Media seen from Asia, while also advising companies on digital communication strategies. For more information click here...