Hong Kong Fan Pages of Content Farms with “Taiwan” in Their Names
Recently, Professor Austin Wang exposed a series of Facebook fan pages with “Taiwan” in their names, whose operators are not based in Taiwan and are attempting to direct users to content farms. This article delves further into the investigation of these fan pages.
Fan Pages Operated from Hong Kong Drive Traffic to Content Farms through Coordinated Posts
First, we exclude the Chinese state media-run “Nihao Taiwan” and “Taiwan Network.” The remaining fan pages investigated all have operators located in Hong Kong. We searched multiple fan pages and confirmed they are indeed run from Hong Kong.
Some content farms exhibit repetitive posts, as shown in the image below, where the same set of images and text is posted repeatedly within a short span of time.
Another set of images and text is also posted repeatedly within a single day.
We connected the repetitive parts of posts from these three fan pages, resulting in the pattern shown in the image below.
What do these fan pages discuss? Some fan pages’ content can be analyzed using the QSearch platform to generate word clouds. Observations reveal that these fan pages mainly discuss topics related to short dramas, celebrities, and gossip, and generally avoid political issues.
These fan pages share a common feature: many posts include links that appear to entice readers to visit another website for further reading.
Manually organizing the first five comments under each fan page post, I discovered about eight content farms. I linked the fan pages to the related content farms, as shown in the image below.
A Large Number of Content Farms with Identical Layouts
These content farms have very similar layouts, characterized by a red bar at the top and very clean text and images.
A close inspection of the source code of these content farms reveals that parts of the code are identical. The source code contains comments in Simplified Chinese, indicating that these content farms are created by the same individual who uses Simplified Chinese as their language.
Additionally, through DNS queries, it can be found that some content farms have their domains registered via Alibaba Cloud in China.
Some content farms have identical content, with the same text and images posted on multiple different content farms.
We also found that some images and text are copied from other bloggers, slightly rearranged, and then reposted without even removing the original watermarks.
Finding More Fan Pages Running Content Farms from Facebook Groups
These fan pages are not the only ones. We found that some fan pages are also administrators of a group called “The World Is So Big, I Want to See It.”
This group is also filled with content farm articles, with many fake accounts posting images and text to guide users to the content farms. These fake accounts even join the group at very close times.
After identifying the fan page-type administrators of this group, we found a larger group of fan pages that are part of the same network. These fan pages are also operated from Hong Kong and use comments with links to direct users to content farms.
After incorporating the identified content farms and fan pages, the structure becomes exceedingly intricate.
These fan pages do not merely share content from the content farms; they also include links to various psychological tests. Some of these tests are hosted on dedicated platforms, while others are conducted through Facebook. The psychological tests on Facebook collect friends’ lists. Some tests on the platforms require payment to view the results, likely as a means to increase revenue.
Collaborative Fan Pages Primarily Posting Short Videos
In addition to psychological tests, some fan pages share short videos. These videos are sourced from Chinese platforms, with some drawn from Chinese dramas, reflecting the Chinese government's favor values.
Upon examining one such page, “Witch’s Tavern (女巫酒館),” we found it cross-shares videos from other fan pages. Further investigation revealed fan pages like “Brother Fa’s Positive Energy (發哥正能量)” and “Tai Xiu Jing (邰琇晶),” which primarily share short videos but occasionally intersperse content farm shares.
Massively Replicated Online Novel Platforms
We also discovered a content farm with the domain www.acg1213.com. However, removing the “www” leads to an online novel platform called “Cat Claw Free Novels (貓爪免費小說).”
A search for “Cat Claw Free Novels” reveals numerous free online novel platforms with identical layouts, suggesting they are operated by the same group.
Summary
The behavior of these fan pages indicates a Hong Kong-based team leveraging Facebook’s availability in Hong Kong to operate numerous fan pages, attracting users interested in entertaining content to run content farms.
Professor Austin Wang pointed out that while these content farms currently focus on celebrities, lifestyle tips, travel, sports, and amusing content, they might engage in coordinated political propaganda targeting these audience groups when political events arise.
