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20 million sock puppets against separatism

Posted by Joel Martinsen, April 25, 2008 11:49 AM

混球vCNN from the USA votes often

Sina, a major Chinese web portal that's been running with the anger that many Internet users feel toward CNN and the western media, is hosting a signature campaign that asks Chinese round the globe to sign on against CNN and separatism.

As with other online polls, this petition is open for abuse, particularly given its explicit goal of racking up 20 million signatures.

Blogger Wen Yunchao took a look through the results and found some interesting names on the list.

At right is a screenful of signatures from individuals named "混球vCNN" who posted from the US. Another screenshot shows the same name posting multiple times from Iraq.

Other fake signatures are less obvious:

Screenshots 3, 4, and 5 are of signatures from 3:00-6:00 on 16 April (pages 8,500-10,000 at 0:15 on the 25th). Here we can see that the names are all different, but the province is almost entirely Yunnan. During those hours, vanishingly few people from other provinces and cities signed their names.

From the changing "names," we notice that the name Genghis (成吉, Chengji in Chinese) occurs frequently (as in Genghis Kehong, Genghis Xingshuang), as does the character 爽 (in Mingshuang, Xingshuang, Jiashuang). Evidently, a whole slew of surnames and given names were entered, and then the computer randomly selected a full name. What's interesting is that the two character surname Chengji, which you usually don't see, suddenly turns up on Sina. Did the editor imagine that Genghis Khan's surname was Chengji? If you entered all the names into a computer list, you'd probably come up with some pretty interesting things.

From these screenshots we can see that there's a possibility of ballot-stuffing on Sina. If Sina takes this data as a "signed protest against the western media," then it's only going to turn itself into a laughingstock.

Of course, Sina could say that that this was done by netizens maliciously using automatic voting programs, but in that case, as China's Biggest News Portal, how will it explain to its clients and users why it was not prepared to prevent ballot stuffing in a serious signature-gathering event that has implications for the nation's reputation?

Links and Sources

Sina (Chinese): Anti-CNN petition, Protect the torch petition
Wen Yunchao at Ramblings of a Drunkard (Chinese): Did Genghis Khan have the surname "Genghis"?

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There are currently 10 Comments for 20 million sock puppets against separatism.

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Comments on 20 million sock puppets against separatism

What do you expect from a people whose ideas of democracy and the vote process come from the Robert Mugabe/Hu Jintao School of Political Science??

Posted by: Hunxuer | April 25, 2008 12:08 PM

Does anyone think 20 million REAL online signatures would ever be a problem ??

Posted by: tom | April 25, 2008 1:09 PM

Is this anything like the CIA/Saddam/Bin Laden or Israeli School of Political Science ??

"What do you expect from a people whose ideas of democracy and the vote process come from the Robert Mugabe/Hu Jintao School of Political Science??"

Posted by: tom | April 25, 2008 1:21 PM

have you ever visited the sigh page?
have you ever scanned the list indifferently?
well, i have! --though i didn't sign.
of each page containing 20 names newly signed, one can hardly find two or three signatures ajacent from the same province! even those that does, they could be from a family or whatever.
given that somebody is using malicious methord, it could count less than 0.1%, put it 1%, then 19.5 million signatures are unneglectable!
show me another list of signatures, by any proposal, any means, fake or not, that is 19.5 million-names-long!
somebody would chooose only to see what they want to see, when they are faced with something undeniable, they distort it.

Posted by: Dob | April 25, 2008 1:32 PM

Well tom, those people/organizations you list, in many cases, are diametrically opposed whereas Hu/Mugabe are working towards the same goal: Totalitarianism in Africa.

Posted by: Hunxuer | April 25, 2008 4:12 PM

the US/CIA certainly were NOT opposed to Saddam, the Taliban and Bin Laden when it was seen as beneficial to them.

And they are not opposed to human rights violations in Saudi Arabia or military oppression in Israel or any number of their allies.

"Well tom, those people/organizations you list, in many cases, are diametrically opposed whereas Hu/Mugabe are working towards the same goal: Totalitarianism in Africa."

Posted by: tom | April 25, 2008 4:40 PM

It's funny hearing people say that the reason this happened is because the Chinese people don't know democracy, like they can't comprehend it lol And what's with this Mugabe link, lol give me a break.

Does anybody even believe that ANY online petitions are valid? Maybe we should ask Amanda Hugginkiss and Hugh Jazz about their roles in online petitions.

Posted by: lol | April 25, 2008 10:56 PM

Thanks Tom.

Regarding the Hu/Mugabe working towards totalitarianism in Africa, I cannot speak for the people of Zimbabwa, yet I do know that though it might sound lame to talk about "democracy inside the CCP", the de facto balance of power from competing interest groups and the different factions of the elite CCP members is more similar to that in the western liberal democracy than you think. The wide dispersion of power among regional authorities actually makes the CCP capable of allowing pluralist voices exist and to stand up to new demands.

And at the present, the popular support CCP enjoys does amount to the "mandate" Ronald Reagan and George W. ever claimed. Thanks to the inapt western media, more or less. "Mandate My Ass!" to all of them.

Posted by: Leah | April 25, 2008 11:32 PM

I just added Mugabe, Cafferty, and Genghis Khan's signatures to Sina's Anti-CNN petition.

Posted by: Spelunker | April 26, 2008 4:34 PM

All Sina and its fenqing supporters can do is wave their fist in the air like Snoopy after being shot down by the Red Baron.

And thanks to the rabid nationalism oozing from the CCP colonies in Chinatowns around the world, we all get a better look at the REAL China and can prepare for the coming confrontation.

Posted by: nanheyangrouchuan | April 28, 2008 5:58 AM