Social media trolls as faux third-party agents of image repair: China’s disinformation campaign and statecraft in the Daryl Morey affair

Figures & data

Table 1. Responses to Daryl Morey’s tweet about Hong Kong.

Category	Description	IRT Strategies	Exemplars
Promoting PRC Image n = 2195 (37.84%)	Mitigations of the PRC face threats resulting from Morey’s tweet about Hong Kong.	Evading Responsibility (Provocation)	They beat elders, women. They beat everyone who opposed them. They use children for their own political purposes. They are ruining HKers’ daily life in the name of democracy. They are HK protesters. Do you support them? @dmorey, 41; @dmorey You didn’t know what the protesters have done. They are terrorist, 5795; @dmorey It is right to pursuit freedom, but not like this, not block traffic, not beat up police officers, not expose the information of police officers families members, not throw gasoline bombs at taxis, not invalidate the radar on planes full of tourists, 5490.
		Reducing Offensiveness (Bolstering)	@dmorey People will win. I mean Chinese people, 4648; @dmorey Kneel down and lick your master ass! China dominates the world!, 2564; @dmorey Fall in line Comrade the future belongs to the Communist, 1225.
		Barnacle	@dmorey One mission One China, 4322; @dmorey The Hong Kong issue is China's internal affairs, and foreign forces have no right to interfere, 5016; @dmorey Sovereignty is beyond discussion, 2896; @dmorey The Chinese are not resisting your freedom of speech, but against your trampling on China's sovereignty. Sovereignty is China’s bottom line and the Chinese people will not tolerate trampling on it. Since it is trampled, please pay the price and get out of China, 5636.
		Redirection	@dmorey FREEDOM AMERICA SHOOTING EVERYDAY #standwithCalifornia, 5388; @dmorey Are you allowed to take a stand on slavery?, 4700; @dmorey I support the independence of the states of the United States, I support the Indians to take back their own territory, and 9/11, 3759; @dmorey Over decades America started 13 wars and causes hundreds of millions of deaths and refugees all over the world, yet Americans calling China evil. I bet you have never thought about it have you?, 2106
Attacking Morey n = 1796 (30.97%)	Attacks on Morey or his immediate family – often through name-calling, threats, and insults.	Reducing Offensiveness (Attack the Accuser)	@dmorey fuck you, american dog, 4140; @dmorey You stupid white pig!, 1795; @dmorey I will fuck your wife every day, 768; @dmorey nmsl, 1004; @dmorey I fuck your mom until her died, 4504; @dmorey Your mother is dead, 785; @dmorey Your daughter is dead, 5048; @dmorey you are dead, 3215.
		N/A (For Apology)	@dmorey What a shame that a supposed ‘leader of men’ could turn out to be such a ‘BETA BOY’ afraid to stand behind his own words … REALLY SAD, 179; @dmorey You have no balls, 338; @dmorey Grow some balls and stand firm for what you believe instead of bowing to pressure from a bunch of money grubs and a communist government who oppresses!, 2800.
Promoting democracy & Morey n = 1412 (24.34%)	Praise for Morey’s initial post and broader concepts of freedom and/or democracy.	N/A	@dmorey Never apologize for supporting freedom and democracy, 1722; Fuck Communist China I stand behind @dmorey and what he tweeted!!! I stand with Hong Kong and their desire for a Democratic independence. #HongKongStrong, 4563; @dmorey Fight for freedom #chinazi, 3847; @dmorey Stand with Hong Kong! stand with you! I am a Chinese!, 917.
Questioning NBA Policy n = 188 (3.24%)	Reflections on the NBA’s treatment of domestic and foreign stakeholders or values.	N/A	@dmorey The NBA pulled the Allstar game from Charlotte in 2015 over a transgender bathroom bill, but still does business and has a presence with a country that has concentration camps, censors their citizens and literally kills for human organ harvesting. Despicable. You did nothing wrong, 792; The NBA has been really good at a lot of things. They are not on this. A lot of that is because it has just so happened that being on the side of social justice has aligned with profit motives. It’s sad that this China thing is showing what really matters. @dmorey is right, 4132; To appease furious Chinese fans, the NBA issued a statement that sounded more critical of @dmorey in Chinese than in English, 1291.
Discouraging Politicization n = 50 (.86%)	Objections to discussing political issues based on sporting, business, social, and cultural norms.	N/A	@dmorey Dear sir: What I just know is the spirit of athletics should not be defaced by ideology, 1888; @dmorey You bring sport into politics, you fail to live up to the fruits of the previous NBA leader, you make sport no longer pure, 5542; @dmorey The first thing university orientation told us is not to recklessly discuss politics with other international students, I don’t think you don’t know why, it is just the very basic politeness, 171.

Note: Exemplars were drawn from the 5800 subsample of tweets subjected to human coding. Exemplars were not edited for grammatical errors. A total of 2.74% of data are not represented in the table and were indiscernible or unrelated to Hong Kong (e.g. basketball operations or roster management).

Figure 1. Number of Messages in Each Category. Note: Predicted share of messages through time for all accounts by category, binned hourly. 95% confidence intervals are included but too narrow to see on this scale.

Figure 2. Change in Message Category Share Before and After Apology. Note: Predicted share of messages by category before and after Morey’s apology. The shares are estimated by first averaging the message share to the account level before and after the apology and then averaging over accounts. Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval in the estimated shares.

Figure 3. Message Shares by Category Over Time by Troll Status. Note: Predicted message shares through time for trolls and non-trolls, binned hourly and by account type (troll vs. non-troll). Bands represent the 95% confidence interval in the estimated shares.

Figure 4. Change in Message Category Share Before and After Apology by Troll Status. Note: Message shares for non-trolls and trolls that were active before and after Morey’s apology. Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval in the estimated shares.