A Study of the Effectiveness of Water Control Reviews in the Perspective of the Internet Spiral of Silence

Abstract

Water army generally refers to those who publish specific information in the network for specific content, or are hired network operators, whose main purpose is generally to create a false network atmosphere, gain profit or achieve some kind of change in the attention of ordinary people. With the development of the information age, the importance of public opinion on the Internet has become more and more evident, and the “water army” that guides public opinion has been born, and major social media platforms are inevitably “eroded” by them. This paper takes the Weibo platform as an example from the perspective of the spiral of silence, and through in-depth interviews and questionnaires, we find out the impact of the phenomenon of “water army” on different types of users, and propose a reasonable solution for social platforms to deal with “water army”. We also propose reasonable suggestions on how to deal with “water army” on social media platforms.