{"id":9194,"date":"2016-04-12T16:52:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T08:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=9194"},"modified":"2022-03-30T16:19:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T08:19:47","slug":"keyboard-fighters-online-wars-di-ba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2016\/04\/keyboard-fighters-online-wars-di-ba\/","title":{"rendered":"Keyboard Fighters and the Online Propaganda Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do mainland net warriors achieve by trolling Taiwan?\"profile<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Lynette Zhang & Chester Chan<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was coordinated with military precision – at 7 p.m. on January 20 this year, an army of Mainlanders went to war with Taiwan. Except this was not a physical assault but a virtual one, waged by mainland netizens on what is perhaps best described as a trolling expedition. Most of them were members of a \u201cpost bar\u201d or online forum run by Chinese internet giant Baidu<\/a> called Di Ba<\/a>, literally \u201cimperial bar.\u201d They called their action a \u201cGreat War\u201d and rallied under the battle-cry: \u201cWhen Di Ba goes into battle, not even a blade of grass can survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they did was flood the Facebook pages of Taiwan media such as Apple Daily and Sanlih News along with that of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.<\/p>\n

Tsai\u2019s historic victory four days earlier was what triggered the concerted attack as the Di Ba warriors circumvented China\u2019s Great Firewall to deliver their message that, \u201cTaiwan belongs to China.\u201d<\/p>\n

They trolled webpages and social media by posting jingoistic slogans, photos of Chinese food and of natural scenery in the Mainland as well as propaganda images featuring Chinese leaders. There were nearly 40,000 Facebook comments within just eight hours under one of Tsai Ing-wen\u2019s Facebook posts alone.<\/p>\n

Lou Jia-ming, a year two student studying in Fudan University, joined the Di Ba operation that day. He posted a screenshot of an online news article from the Global Times about a statement from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirming Oslo\u2019s adherence to the one-China policy since 1970. Lou says he did this in response to a report in Sanlih News that said the Norwegian government recognised Taiwan as a state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Taiwanese are afraid when we present them with the facts,\u201d Lou says, \u201cThey keep resisting because these facts violate what they believe.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In order to join the Di Ba operation, Lou had to connect to a virtual private network (VPN) to bypass the Great Firewall and gain access to sites banned on the Mainland, such as Facebook and some Taiwan media. It was not his first time.<\/p>\n

Lou started jumping over the wall after the Taiwan presidential election because he has never been to Taiwan before and wanted to know more about the island. What he saw on the other side came as a huge shock.<\/p>\n

Lou used to believe Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China belonged to one family. He recalls that when there were disputes between Vietnam and Taiwan over islands and reefs in the South China Sea in early January, many mainland netizens supported Taiwan online. Therefore, he was surprised and hurt by Taiwan netizens\u2019 hostility towards their mainland counterparts.<\/p>\n

He thinks Taiwan netizens have an irrational attitude towards mainland netizens and blames this on the Taiwan media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we [Di Ba warriors] are doing is to show the Taiwanese that we are actually very nice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In order to win hearts and minds, Di Ba\u2019s administrators set some ground rules \u2013 members could only use \u201ccivilized\u201d language, they were banned from using insulting images and pictures of leaders. Lou stresses the operation was aimed at fostering friendly communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, Taiwanese are our compatriots. This is for sure and we are not fighting against them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The genteel approach surprised Remy Xu Zi jian, a senior Di Ba member, who compared it to previous attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first impression was \u2018it\u2019s impossible!\u2019 How come there is no one using dirty words?\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

Xu is 22 and has been active on Di Ba since his teens. He has taken part in many attacks, most of them targeted at the online forums for mainland fans of Korean pop stars. These attacks were usually triggered by what Di Ba members viewed as the \u201cidiotic\u201d things Chinese K-pop fans said or did in support of their idols. The Di Ba army would flood the forums with insulting messages.<\/p>\n

Xu recalls one of his most memorable attack experiences, targeting a forum for Chinese students in Japan called \u201cHome of Japanese<\/a>\u201d. He says a netizen was banned by the administrator of \u201cHome of Japanese\u201d after a post titled \u201cViva the People\u2019s Republic of China!\u201d. Di Ba members retaliated and the forum collapsed after Di Ba\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

When he is asked about the content of \u201cHome of Japan\u201d, Xu cannot give an answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never been to that post bar before the attack,\u201d he says with an embarrassed smile.<\/p>\n

Di Ba was set up in 2003 on a relatively small scale and is now a giant forum with over 20 million registered members. Xu thinks its mega scale has turned it into a \u201crendezvous with bored people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people who participate in Di Ba\u2019s post attacks know nothing about the context,\u201d Xu says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looking back at his own past involvement, he admits the attacks did not achieve anything but rather just satisfied the members themselves. Xu thinks the \u201cvictories\u201d they score in post attacks feed their vanity.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, the post attacks may give Di Ba\u2019s members the illusion that they are contributing to society.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is supported by a moral cause and makes people feels like \u2018I am helping the country\u2019, everyone joins.\u201d Xu says.<\/p>\n

Xu did not join the \u201cGreat War\u201d but, as an experienced hand, he guesses the warriors who participated in it must believe that they are helping the central government to educate the Taiwanese. The Di Ba warriors believe it is unarguable that Taiwan belongs to China and the \u201cGreat War\u201d is an expression of this political aspiration, says Xu.<\/p>\n

\"Rennie
Rennie Zhong Yu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, Rennie Zhong Yu, a 19-year-old mainland student in Hong Kong, believes the motivation behind the \u201cGreat War\u201d is more banal. While some commentators see the \u201cGreat War\u201d as some kind of political mission, Zhong says the attacks are not about political engagement, but a form of entertainment for most of the participants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aim is not that noble,\u201d she says. \u201cBasically, it is just a parade for everyone to have fun.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If that is the case, then the feeling may be mutual \u2013 some Taiwanese netizens say they are more amused than angered by the \u201cGreat War\u201d. Lothar Lu Shao-hsuan, an 18-year-old in Taiwan, says he was entertained and amazed by the \u201cattack\u201d of food photos and funny online stickers. Lu agrees that it was more like a friendly conversation than a war.<\/p>\n

But some of his friends on PTT<\/a>, the leading online discussion forum in Taiwan, think differently. After the Sunflower Movement, a campaign in 2014 to oppose a trade deal with the Mainland, PTT has become a major platform for sharing political views. It is also dominated by DPP supporters.<\/p>\n

Although Lu belongs to a \u201cdeep blue\u201d family that strongly supports the Kuomintang (KMT), he has defected to the \u201cgreen camp\u201d under the influence of PTT, and he is not alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to have friends who thought the Taiwan independence movement was treason,\u201d Lu says with a big smile. \u201cThey all support Taiwan independence now!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lu says that his friends on PTT are not angry about the \u201cGreat War\u201d, but they do find it absurd that mainland netizens resort to jumping over the wall to access Facebook. \u201cIt\u2019s like caged birds being ignorant of freedom,\u201d says Lu.<\/p>\n

Some mainland netizens point out the \u201cwall\u201d does not just exist on their side of the Taiwan Strait. Mainland student Rennie Zhong says that although people in Taiwan enjoy internet freedom, the island\u2019s media still restricts citizens from receiving different opinions about the Mainland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wall exists. It is an invisible wall built by education and the mainstream which constrains your opinions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the authorities\u2019 strict control on the internet and media in China, Zhong says there is \u201can internet environment with more freedom\u201d and she is optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n

Jack Qiu Linchuan, an associate professor who teaches global and Chinese communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, does not share Zhong\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe freedom of speech in the Mainland has definitely decreased after Xi Jin ping became the General Secretary [of the Chinese Communist Party],\u201d says Qiu.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Qiu thinks \u201cthe internet environment with more freedom\u201d that Zhong believes mainland netizens are enjoying is a limited kind of freedom for individuals who are not trying to mobilise others. He says the true test is whether citizens enjoy public freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic speech could affect policies, resulting in actual changes,\u201d says Qiu.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Di Ba warriors may launch large-scale attacks en masse, but these have limited impact in the \u201creal\u201d world. Qiu describes the \u201cGreat War\u201d as a kind of \u201cslacktivism\u201d, which is a term that combines \u201cslacker\u201d and \u201cactivism\u201d. It is used to describe many people taking part in an action on the internet which requires little time and effort but massages the egos of the participants; often such activities make little real change.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Qiu believes the online world in Hong Kong has gradually evolved from slacktivism to activism.<\/p>\n

When it comes to local online political discussion and activity, Hong Kong Golden<\/a> is the foremost forum whose members sometimes issue calls for physical action, for instance calling on protesters to occupy Lung Wo Road during the Occupy Movement. What started life as a forum for comparing prices of computer parts in Sham Shui Po\u2019s Golden Centre in 1999 has evolved into a site where news, gossip and political views are shared in posts, mashups, memes and parody songs.<\/p>\n

Sing to Say<\/a>, a popular lyricist, is famous for his politically charged covers of Cantopop hits on Golden\u2019s YouTube music channel. Sing to Say says he used to be politically apathetic until he watched a derivative music video based on the Japanese cartoon, Attack on Titan, that cast the Chinese Communist Party as the villain threatening Hong Kong. The song got him interested in politics and he started writing his own songs because he realised how influential such works could be.<\/p>\n

Kelvin Chan Siu-to, a senior member of Hong Kong Golden, says the forum teaches him to understand society. \u201cGolden Forum is a platform to gather teenagers and encourage them to be engaged in political issues,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Chan notes the change in Golden from a forum for staging online post attacks, to a place to organise petitions to the White House and, ultimately, actual protests. Many members of political parties and groups formed by youngsters, such as Hong Kong Indigenous, are active on the forum. This leads Chan to believe Golden will be a major platform for political opinion in the future.<\/p>\n

The term \u201ckeyboard fighter\u201d is often used to describe netizens who start online fights without taking action in reality. But today it seems possible for online wars to turn into real action. What, if anything can keyboard fighters achieve? The next \u201cwar\u201d may provide the answer.<\/p>\n

Edited by Esther Chan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have not gone to actual war, but some online activists are doing it via tens of thousands of propaganda posts instead, some of which have led to actual protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1937,8],"tags":[469,205,298,434,128,102],"class_list":["post-9194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-140","category-our-community","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-hong-kong","tag-mainland","tag-online","tag-politics","tag-taiwan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9194"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20836,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9194\/revisions\/20836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}