1450 Internet army

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1450 Internet army, also known as 1450, is a term for Internet users who have been hired by Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to sway public opinion.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} In 2019, the Taiwanese Council of Agriculture budgeted NT$ 14,500,000 for public relations campaigns and the hiring of social media managers to debunk misinformation. Because what counted as misinformation was not clearly defined, some netizens questioned whether it included any and all negative coverage, coining the term "1450".^[8] After the council warned reporters not to use titles such as "Council of Agriculture funding Internet army", the term gained even greater popularity.^[9]

In an interview, Chen Chi-chung, the chairman of the Council of Agriculture, stated that "Taiwan is the country with the most fake news in the world, and it seriously affects the interests of agriculture, so it is necessary to clarify all the information and emphasise that all tenders are legally open".^[10]

Tseng Ming-chung has criticised Chen Chi-chung for being involved in party politics and harming the interests of farmers.^[11] In May 2019, Chen Yi-min, a member of the Kuomintang (KMT) legislative caucus, pointed out that the Council of Agriculture's budget for recruiting staff had been expanded to NT$19 million, and that the council had asked questions about the "independence of Tibet" and the "equal rights of marriage" in order to screen suitable applicants for jobs.The company also asked for views on "Tibetan independence" and "marriage equality" in order to screen suitable applicants.It also pointed out that the location of the company that won the bid was the same as the address of Yau Boo Trading Company, which was under the responsibility of DPP's Director of the Social Affairs Department, Joon Yen Wu ^[12][13] In December 2021 Kuomintang chairman Eric Chu claimed that the DPP relied on the internet army to seize power and rule the country, and that in the end, the internet army would destroy Taiwan.^[14]

After the DPP suffered a defeat in the 2022 local elections, DPP Secretary General Lin Hsi-yao said at a press conference on the defeat, "The DPP's system and staff are very clear, and now there are flanking cyber-armies, none of which is a major member of the DPP, and it is up to outsiders to make a fair assessment as to whether or not they have overridden the DPP."^[15][16]

In an article entitled "China's Floods: The Bitterness of Residents in Sacrificed Areas" written by Le Platte, a special correspondent of the French newspaper Le Monde in China, he accused the Chinese government of sacrificing the villages of neighbouring towns in order to protect the cities of Beijing, Xiong'an and Tianjin during the heavy rains in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in 2023, which led to dissatisfied residents' protests but were dispersed by the police, and quoted the people of Baoding as querying the government in the social media that "they say they want to serve the people, 'the people'". Is it only party secretaries and cadres?" In the aftermath of the incident, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in France was informed of the incident. Afterwards, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in France claimed that the journalist was "1450".^[17]

Rumours on mainland China's Sina Weibo claimed that during Taiwan's massive blackout in March 2022, various conflicting topics on mainland China's internet suddenly disappeared, and concluded that the previous conflicts were the work of Taiwan's 1450 Network Army, and firmly believed that the 1450 Network Army was an organisation financed by the United States that was used to discredit mainland China.^[18] This was officially denied by Weibo.^[19]

The Taiwan Affairs Office called on netizens on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to never be upset by the green camp network army and to boycott the DPP's "1450".^[20] The Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China reprinted an article by the Global Times' team "Mending One Knife", which said that Taiwan's 1450 Network Army had counter-intuitively made pro-China comments and infiltrated public opinion in mainland China, but had ignored the translation of Taiwanese-style personal names because of the imitation of Simplified Chinese postings (the article pointed out that Putin's Chinese translation in mainland China is "Putin"). The 1450 Cyber Army has been exposed as a US-funded organisation to discredit mainland China ("Putin", or "Puting" in Taiwan).^[21]

In the summer of 2019, Ko Wen-je and his wife Peggy Chen called those who opposed or criticized Ko "1450", triggering netizens to call for "1450 to withdraw their praises from Ko Wen-je's Facebook page", "From Wanjun to 1450" Ke Fan to Ke Hei Confessions Zone" and other "withdrawal of praises", which led to the number of people liking his page falling from a peak of 2.12 million in August to 1.96 million in mid-September, and the number of people dropping their fans was more than 160,000 people.^[22]

In February 2021, when DPP legislator Kao Chia-yu was brutalised by Lin Bing-shu, two articles posted by ID "Crazy Vinnie" appeared on PTT speaking out for Lin Bing-shu, who was suspected to be the perpetrator of the brutality. At the same time, Lin Ping-shu was also Facebook friends with cyber soldier Yang Hui-ru.^[23] According to PTT celebrity Wu Ta-wei, this account is suspected to be the account of the 1450 cyber soldier.^[24]

When Kansai International Airport was closed by Typhoon Hirata in 2018, Su Kai-cheng, then head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Osaka, hanged himself in Japan because he was overwhelmed by the pressure of public opinion. It was later discovered that it was Chinese photojournalist "Aoyama" who first posted the article on the internet, followed by the blue and green camps attacking each other based on this "fake news". Taiwan police investigated and concluded that an account named "idcc" insulted the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Osaka in PTT, which led to Su Qicheng's self-hanging death.^[25] The Taipei District Court found that Kaishen Yang Huiru was responsible for funding and her friend Tsai Fuming was responsible for recruiting netizens to lead the way in this incident.^[26]

In May 2021, Lin Wei-feng made a backhanded comment on PTT, which he later acknowledged and apologised for on Facebook. He was also suspended by his eyeball CCTV.^[27][28][29]

China Times reported that Jeremy Lin was besieged by 1450 for tweeting about the U.S. epidemic prevention situation and the Wuhan Pneumonia Name Factor.^[30][31]

Actor Ko Yu Lun said "You can call me Netflix, some people will call me 1450, also half-time YouTuber" "When Tsai Ing-wen's presidential election, the fundraising was 1450 yuan so people paid out of their pockets, and we all felt that it was something to be proud of for a long time."^[32]

Actress Zheng Jiaxun told Mr Akira, a Japanese doctor, "If you support the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan, you will be called 1450", her husband said bluntly, "I like President Tsai very much", Zheng Jiaxun said, "Then you are also 1450", Akira said happily after hearing this, "Good! (やった！)" The family is also a 1450 family.^[33][34]

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