science

Public opinion brigades

Public opinion brigades is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Public opinion brigades rather than just read about it. In short: The public opinion brigades (Vietnamese: dư luận viên, or tuyên truyền viên) is a state-sponsored web brigade of the Communist Party of Vietnam or linked to the Communist Government of Vietnam. Similar to Russia's web brigades and China's 50 Cent Army, participants report that they are organized into teams and groups of commentators that participate in Vietnamese and international political blogs and Internet forums…

Key takeaways

Public opinion brigades belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Public opinion brigades to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Public opinion brigades from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The public opinion brigades (Vietnamese: dư luận viên, or tuyên truyền viên) is a state-sponsored web brigade of the Communist Party of Vietnam or linked to the Communist Government of Vietnam. Similar to Russia's web brigades and China's 50 Cent Army, participants report that they are organized into teams and groups of commentators that participate in Vietnamese and international political blogs and Internet forums using sockpuppets and large-scale orchestrated trolling and disinformation campaigns to promote pro-Vietnamese communist propaganda with a usual overtone of opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion, and of support for Russian imperialism, due to Vietnam's friendly relationship with Russia.

Background It is unclear how the brigades started since the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPVN/VCP) often controls political information. However, the earliest form of Internet propaganda supporting CPVN seems to have begun in 2007, when the Government announced to "eliminate any wrong news that threaten the Party's rule". As the Communist Party is the only party allowed by Vietnamese constitution, it was the beginning of the brigades. In 2017, Lieutenant-General Nguyen Trong Nghia, deputy head of the Vietnamese military's political department, confirmed that Vietnam has a new, 10,000-strong military cyber warfare unit to counter criticisms of the government on the Internet. The cyber unit named Force 47 is active in several sectors.

Force 47 Force 47 (Lực lượng 47) is a large cyberspace military unit of Vietnam revealed in December 2017 with a focus on combating "wrong views" on the Internet. Internet security firms such as Volexity and FireEye report pro-Hanoi or Hanoi regime-sponsored hackers installed spyware on anti-government, dissident websites to track who visits them.

Methods The methods used are not always clear, but includes criticism of opposing views to those of the Communist Party. Vietnamese nationalists, dissidents and anti-communists claim that the CPVN has been doing this for a long time, to brainwash people's minds and distort and truth, branding who disagree with the Communist Party as "traitors of the nation". BBC and Deutsche Welle correspondents have also reported about the brigades' activities. Other Governments also accused Vietnamese Communist Party's troll army for attacking and hacking websites that criticize the CPVN.

Distortion of history The CPVN has attempted to rewrite history, including war crimes by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War having been completely erased to serve the Party's agenda, promoting only themselves as the "heroes" of Vietnam.

See also Astroturfing Black propaganda Cyberwarfare in Russia Fake news website Hasbara Information warfare Internet activism Internet police PLA Unit 61398, Chinese PLA online hacking & malware implantation unit State-sponsored Internet propaganda in other countries: Internet Water Army; 50 Cent Party; 50 Cent Army, Chinese communist government's version of Dư luận viên Operation Earnest Voice, Jewish Internet Defense Force, and AK Trolls — the former Western Bloc's versions of Dư luận viên Trolls from Olgino Web brigades Information security Netto-uyoku Vatnik (slang)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Public opinion brigades

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Public opinion brigades claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Public opinion brigades before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Public opinion brigades ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Public opinion brigades

In research: Public opinion brigades appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Public opinion brigades in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Public opinion brigades is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Internet governance, Internet manipulation and propaganda, Internet trolling, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Public opinion brigades outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Public opinion brigades in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Public opinion brigades means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Public opinion brigades out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Public opinion brigades in simple terms?

Why does Public opinion brigades matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Public opinion brigades?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Public opinion brigades.