In recent days, a young snack stall owner named Hu Ermei from Sichuan chose to end her life due to unbearable cyberbullying, leaving behind two young children. The trigger was a customer’s dissatisfaction with the portion size of the 6 yuan fried potato chips she served, leading to the customer filming a “thunder video” and uploading it online, followed by a torrent of online attacks that overwhelmed Hu Ermei.
Analysts familiar with the Chinese Communist Party’s public opinion control point out that behind what ordinary netizens see as “online bullying” is actually manipulation of public opinion by the CCP, aiming to create “social divisions,” incite “mutual hatred among the masses,” and make netizens “intellectually impoverished” in order to divert public discontent away from the CCP.
According to reports, in Yibin, Sichuan, there is a well-known local snack stall named “Hu Ermei’s Copper Pot Sweet Potatoes.” On September 6, a customer went to consume there and, dissatisfied with the portion, an argument ensued. The customer recorded the argument as a “thunder video” and uploaded it online, accusing the stall owner of being unable to handle it and not adding more potatoes when the dish was too high, and leaving negative reviews on major group-buying platforms.
The dispute over the 6 yuan potato chips led stall owner Hu Ermei to explain in the comments section that different fried dishes shrink differently after cooking, making them appear less in the bowl, not intentionally giving less, but she could no longer calm down this sudden storm.
As the “thunder video” spread, a large number of “netizens” flooded Hu Ermei’s personal social accounts, attacking and insulting her and her family. Faced with the overwhelming online violence and bullying, Hu Ermei collapsed emotionally, wrote a farewell letter in despair, and chose to end her life by jumping into a river, leaving behind her husband and her 11-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.
Neighbors of Hu Ermei were shocked by this, admitting that she was always very friendly to people.
In her farewell letter, Hu Ermei sorrowfully wrote, “I watched the negative reviews tear me apart, cried my eyes out, my eyes swollen, surviving and supporting a small family is too difficult!”
The 32-year-old Hu Ermei concluded her farewell by saying, “I thought I was doing things steadily, would support my small family, and watch my two kids grow up! I sincerely managed the small stall, and the ‘thunder video’ became the final straw that crushed me! Farewell, this dark world! To those who stepped on landmines in the comment section, may you never step on one again!”
Some netizens lamented, “Pressuring someone to death over 6 yuan potatoes!”
“The online bullying culture is toxic, completely unnecessary.”
After the news of Hu Ermei’s death spread, the tide online shifted dramatically, with many criticisms turning towards the customer who posted the “thunder video.” The person involved defended herself on October 9, stating that she shared her genuine consumption experience without ill intentions towards the stall owner, expressing regret for her passing, and mentioning that she is currently pregnant, also becoming a target of online bullying. She claimed her right to seek accountability.
Former mainland Chinese media personality Zhao Lanjian revealed in a previous interview with Dajiyuan that what ordinary netizens perceive as “online bullying” events are actually orchestrated by the CCP’s public opinion manipulation and the operational efforts of specific internet companies’ departments.
He explained, “These peripheral companies cooperate with the government in public opinion promotion and maintenance, instigating and conducting crisis PR, rather than actual online mobs causing ‘online bullying.’ Behind every public opinion incident, there is significant guidance and commercial operation.”
Prior reports by overseas Chinese-language media have exposed the “water army industry chain” behind numerous instances of online bullying in mainland China.
According to these reports, the “internet water army” in mainland China has developed a tightly organized division of labor within the industry, with hacker teams responsible for developing automated mass control software, nurturing “zombie accounts,” and even illegally collecting real individuals’ private information. These operations offer openly priced orders for false retweets, likes, or abusive comments. For example, 500 RMB can buy 100,000 Weibo “zombie fans,” 160 RMB will buy 20,000 likes, and 100 RMB can buy 10,000 reposts.
Additionally, there are “online thugs” pressuring victims intensively on the internet, as well as many self-proclaimed “marketing accounts” posing as self-media, intervening in controversial topics, inciting antagonism, provoking public anger, and reaping traffic benefits.
Years ago, a media outlet in Hong Kong interviewed industry insiders who disclosed that the mainland’s online landscape has formed a “vast but malformed gray industry chain,” encompassing online promoters inflating fake issues, helping flood with water army, “review hitters” capable of bringing down a webshop in ten days, and deletion companies selectively addressing negative posts, all to maintain a state of “mutual hatred” within society, discouraging united opposition against authorities.
On October 14, a female netizen posted on X lamenting Hu Ermei, mentioning experiencing “online bullying” herself but finding it “difficult to imagine how painful Hu Ermei’s last days on earth must have been.” She denounced the online bullies for “taking their anger out on ordinary people while not daring to criticize the tyranny.”
Wu Shaoping, head of the Overseas Human Rights Lawyers Alliance, told Dajiyuan that due to the CCP’s strict control over society, people have accumulated numerous negative emotions, repressed without an outlet, and suddenly, upon finding someone “weaker than them,” they unleash these emotions on that “innocent person.”
Zhao Lanjian emphasized that the CCP deliberately uses mundane topics to “concentrate society’s emotional response,” deliberately allowing “small matters to become hot topics,” shifting blame onto ordinary netizens when tragedies occur, claiming to “combat online bullying.”
According to a report by China News Network at the end of September, the Jilin Provincial police cracked a criminal case involving the “commercialization” of online violence, arresting 98 people involved, uncovering a “company-like” assembly line model of “order taking, dispatching, grouping, harming, and feedback,” specifically offering “paid services” for “online revenge” in personal disputes.
Reports indicate that manipulation of “online bullying” succeeds primarily due to the “multiplier effect” of the “water army + unquestioning crowd.”
The water army establishes a false social consensus of “everyone calling for action against the victim,” and then, through platform algorithms, pushes the topic to more real netizens. Many uninformed “onlookers” join in due to a sense of justice or anger, ultimately escalating into a real-life tragedy that cannot be contained.
Zhao Lanjian specifically stated that the CCP intentionally seeks to “intellectualize the whole population” in this manner, inundating the internet with trivial news to “submerge people’s deep-thinking about the (future of society).”
Former mainland media personality Zeng Jieming also told Dajiyuan that the CCP’s control over the internet, political dissent, and sensitive topics is stringent, but regarding daily online bullying, doxxing, and public shamings, there is often “delayed or selective intervention.” Platform algorithms also “encourage conflict content,” amplify individual topics to “create divisions,” or divert people’s attention from discontent with the regime.
“What the CCP wants is mutual hatred in society, so people won’t unite against it,” Zeng Jieming said.