China has developed a mobile application that requires public servants to participate in online opinion-shaping campaigns, an evolution of Beijing’s efforts to influence Internet discourse, a cybersecurity source said.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses an app called Notepad (記事本), which assigns tasks and key performance indicator (KPI) evaluations to compel rank-and-file public employees to participate in online influence campaigns, posing a growing cognitive warfare threat to democratic societies worldwide, the source said.
China’s online propaganda efforts began in 1996 — the same year Taiwan held its first direct presidential election. Early operations relied on civil servants working part-time to shape online discourse before evolving into campaigns outsourced to the so-called “50 Cent Army” and paid online commentators known as the “Internet water army” (水軍).
Photo: Reuters
In 2007, the CCP Central Committee ordered officials at all levels to recruit personnel with strong political credentials and Internet skills to serve as online commentators tasked with guiding public opinion. China established the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Strategic Support Force Network Systems Department in 2017 and reorganized it into the Information Support Force in 2024. The PLA’s Cyberspace Force made its first public appearance during China’s Sept. 3 military parade last year.
Last month, the X account Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher (李老師不是你老師), which frequently reports on developments in China, reposted a message from a Chinese civil servant who said employees had been ordered to install the Notepad app and spend off-duty hours liking, commenting on and reposting government propaganda content.
According to leaked documents, the system is jointly operated by the CCP’s Central Publicity Department, the Cyberspace Administration of China, local governments and judicial agencies. The app employs a three-tier structure covering assignments issued by the Cyberspace Administration, local government directives and individual KPI performance. It consolidates instructions distributed through phone calls and WeChat groups into a centralized platform capable of tracking participation, ranking performance and conducting real-time audits.
Public employees receive points for reposting content, publishing comments and making social media posts. Completion rates for government units are publicly displayed, while individual rankings are compiled into a “leaderboard.” An engineer involved in analyzing the documents said the system borrows techniques commonly used by Internet platforms, combining tasks, points, rankings and hierarchical management to sustain participation.
Leaked local government records suggest the campaign is widespread. In Chengde, Hebei Province, authorities established a 71-member online commentator team that reportedly posted more than 3,000 positive comments and reposted about 26,000 articles. Documents from Inner Mongolia show local authorities formed a 30-member core commentator team in 2023 to improve completion rates for Notepad assignments. A 2024 work report from Yueyang, Hunan Province, instructed officials to provide “timely and effective front-end guidance” during major events by rapidly flooding online discussions with content reflecting official positions.
The findings closely mirror a 2016 study by Harvard University political scientist Gary King and colleagues, which found that many members of the 50 Cent Army were government employees who collectively posted an estimated 488 million messages annually. The study found that the posts were often concentrated on major political events and generally focused on praising government achievements or promoting official historical narratives rather than engaging directly with controversial topics.
The source said the operation aligns with research by Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research and reflects the PLA’s longstanding emphasis on shaping narratives before conflict begins. The Notepad app represents a new phase in China’s information-control strategy, combining censorship with the active promotion of positive messaging, the source said, saying that its impact could extend beyond China if installation eventually becomes mandatory for all civil servants.
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