The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday said that it would ask responsible authorities to investigate whether it is legal for Chinese to recruit Taiwanese to run social media Web sites.
With just more than nine months until next year’s presidential election, Beijing is allegedly recruiting Taiwanese cyberwarfare operatives with an ad saying that Internet celebrities are preferred.
An employment ad posted by “takaobrainhealing” on a Facebook page dedicated to political satire last month said that it is looking for people “skilled in spreading information and reposting.”
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
To qualify, it said an applicant must have two or three Facebook accounts, or at least two Line, Wechat or Yahoo accounts, or is willing to apply for any required number of accounts on these platforms.
Responsibilities would include: “Meeting requirements to spread content mill articles, posting news-related content and shaping public opinion, and leaving comments to defend the pan-blue political camp or China,” as well as “attacking, isolating or drowning out any article or comment that is not in line with our position.”
The ad promises a monthly wage of NT$35,000.
Another ad on Facebook is looking for Internet celebrities who politically lean toward “cross-strait rapport/unification.”
The post said that the job is being offered through a “special project overseen by the People’s Government of Sichuan Province,” adding that applicants do not need to have a large following, but have to be “pretty.”
They would be trained by a talent firm in China, which promises exposure on major media outlets with at least 2 million viewers per day, it said, adding that trainees would be paid between 5,000 and 10,000 yuan (US$744 and US$1,489) per month, depending on their potential.
Another ad looking for “Facebook page administrators for political parties” has also surfaced on online job banks that promises a successful applicant between NT$20,000 and NT$50,000 per month and flexible working hours, but requires support for “peaceful unification between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
Meanwhile, the administrators of several Facebook pages, including “impolite.tw” and “jamesiscurly2,” said that they have received direct messages asking whether their pages could be acquired.
Judging by their dialects, the interested parties are likely Chinese, they said.
The council said that it would work with relevant agencies to monitor the ads and page requests, adding that the governing agency would appropriately punish Chinese who run illegal ads.
It urged people working in China or thinking about working in China to be aware of the legal and cultural differences, and to be mindful of the trouble their political beliefs could cause them.
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