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"China has 2 million people working as online monitors, according to a report last week by state news publication Beijing News \u2014 a new estimate that reveals the breadth of the country\u2019s massive online censorship and surveillance systems. The monitors, who scour online comments and compile reports for officials or private businesses, outnumber even China\u2019s 1.5 million active military personnel.\nThere is now an entire industry and profession dedicated to controlling \u2014 or attempting to control \u2014 China\u2019s fast-moving social media world, where comments quickly go viral among the country\u2019s 500 million Internet users. The People\u2019s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party, is holding a four-day seminar this month where successful students can be certified as \u201Cpublic opinion analysts,\u201D according to a Beijing Times report. Once certified, they\u2019re eligible for jobs with China\u2019s propaganda department, commercial companies, news websites or public relation firms.\nSocial media monitoring, a measure whose ostensible goal is social stability, has been turned into a \u201Cmoney-making machine for local governments [and] firms,\u201D said Guobin Yang, a professor of sociology and communications at the University of Southern California, in comments on Twitter on Monday. The People\u2019s Daily charges up to 4,000 renminbi ($650) for four days of training to become an analyst, Yang noted.\nAnd for businesses or officials who need more than just monitoring, \u201Cblack public relations\u201D firms offers services like wiping negative articles from the Internet or blocking certain search terms. These cost at least 10,000 renminbi and and up to 1 million renminbi, respectively, according to a February report by Century Weekly.\nImage: Flickr, Brandon Atkinson"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/china-internet-monitors/>