2010, Qihoo, creator of 360 Safeguard, claimed that Tencent's instant message client Tencent QQ secretly scanned users' hard drives. After Tencent blocked 360 Safeguard users from using their messenger app, controversy erupted on social media websites. Cheng's researchers analyzed two large datasets of 360 v. Tencent postings, over 1000 comments from 200 users on Sohu.com and over 20,000 comments from 500 users on Sina.com. They concluded: "Although both 360 and Tencent claimed that they did not hire online paid posters, we now have strong evidence suggesting the opposite. Some special patterns are definitely unusual, e.g., many negative comments or replies came from newly registered user IDs but these user IDs were seldom used afterwards. This clearly indicates the use of online paid posters." The researchers designed and validated detection software, and concluded the "test results on real-world datasets show[ed] very promising performance". See also Trolls from Olgino Web brigades Public opinion brigades State-sponsored internet sockpuppetry Little Pink References External links China's Cybersecurity Law: What You Need to Know, The Diplomat Undercover Researchers Expose Chinese Internet Water Army , Technology Review Chinese Internet slang Disinformation operations Internet censorship in China Internet manipulation and propaganda Internet trolling Propaganda in China Propaganda techniques Public relations techniques