In fact, back in 2008, it was thought that China maintained a literal army of 300,000 internet posters (for reference, the entire British Army has approximately 82,000 men), whose sole job was to improve China’s standing online and spread narratives friendly to that of the beliefs of the Chinese government. Fast forward a few good years, and security researchers and academics believe that number to have grown to at least 2,000,000. That’s 2 million paid agents whose job is to do nothing but monitor online activity, and astroturf social media to promote the ideals of a “harmonious society” according to the beliefs of the Chinese government. That’s approximately ten times the size of the entire United States Marine Corps. Inside China, the…