As more and more businesses and enterprises expand their customer base via online shopping platforms, ratings and reviews have become one major way consumers can determine the trustworthiness of a business. In China, the “wangluo shuijun”, or internet trolls, was formed in response to that demand, with the goal of flooding the internet with fake reviews, comments, and ratings intended to boost sales. Recently, Han Dandong, a journalist from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) state media, Legal Daily, went undercover in dozens of troll business groups and published his investigations in an article titled “Unanimous and Consistent Positive Ratings in Online Shopping Could be Fake.” According to Han, joining the trolls may be as simple as responding to a hiring notice posted by an administrator in any public messaging group on the Tencent messaging app QQ, without verification of identity. The novice trolls are then allowed access to a private …