As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to tighten control over online speech, newly surfaced official documents suggest that local authorities across the country are using a dedicated mobile app to organize and monitor state-backed online commentators through a system of tasks, rankings, and performance scores.
The app, called “Notepad,” has appeared in public procurement records, annual government reports, training materials, and internal work documents from multiple Chinese provinces between 2023 and 2025, according to documents circulated online and reviewed by the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times.
The records indicate that the platform has been integrated into the routine operations of the CCP’s cyberspace administration system, propaganda apparatus, and local government departments. Tasks assigned via the app include posting comments, reposting official content, liking social media posts, and completing “guidance” assignments related to major news events.
Digital Command System for Online Opinion Management
Training materials for the “Notepad” platform describe sections labeled “Headlines,” “Main Arena,” and “Columns,” where users receive assignments and track their completion status. Screenshots and instructional documents also reference point systems, leaderboards, and completion-rate rankings.According to one training document, the “Headlines” section distributes priority assignments from the CCP’s central cyberspace authorities, while the “Main Arena” section handles tasks from local agencies.
Some assignments require users to repost content through external browsers rather than directly in the app—a practice that training materials say is intended to reduce the visibility of the platform’s name online.
The system also appears to use a quasi-military management structure. Public documents cite organizational layers such as “general teams,” “brigades,” “squadrons,” and “units,” along with individual and institutional rankings.
Although no publicly available rules outlining formal rewards have surfaced, several official documents describe detailed performance-tracking mechanisms based on repost counts, comment totals, task completion rates, and point accumulation.
Multiple China-based online experts and activists spoke to The Epoch Times about the topic on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
A politically active netizen in Shenyang, the capital of northeast Liaoning Province, told the publication that local cyberspace authorities have spent years cultivating extensive networks of online commentators.
“Some are retirees seeking extra income,” he said. “They monitor online discussions and report users who post what authorities consider ‘negative information’—such as electric vehicle fires or criticism of government policies.”
The netizen said the organizational model has evolved significantly.
“In the past, tasks were usually distributed via WeChat groups,” he said. “People would receive a notice and then post comments or repost articles.
“Now, everything is centralized in an app. You can see who completed tasks, who didn’t, and everyone’s ranking. From an ordinary user’s perspective, it increasingly resembles a workplace attendance system.”
He said the CCP appears to view online discourse as an increasingly serious political risk.
“The regime believes that online speech has begun to threaten regime security in recent years,” the netizen said. “By using rankings, points, rewards, and penalties, they’ve built a system that works especially well during periods of high unemployment.
Expansion Beyond Domestic Monitoring
A Chinese network engineer told The Epoch Times that the app reflects a broader trend of state agencies adopting engagement techniques commonly used by commercial internet platforms.“This combines tasks, points, rankings, and hierarchical management into a continuous behavioral system,” he said. “It draws directly on how online platforms incentivize user activity.”
The engineer added that he believes such systems may eventually extend beyond domestic opinion management.
“I suspect this could evolve into monitoring overseas social media accounts,” he said. “There were recent reports that the regime was targeting overseas accounts through systems operated by public security agencies.
“In the future, this kind of platform could also be used to coordinate large-scale online influence operations.”
China has steadily expanded its internet control apparatus since 2013, when Beijing established the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the CCP body overseeing internet governance and information control.
Since then, the CCP has promoted what officials call a “comprehensive internet governance system,” and expanded networks of online commentators, grassroots propagandists, and volunteer internet monitors.
