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It's a bad translation of 水軍 which is short for 網絡水軍 (astroturfers)

Fascinating that to understand "astroturf" you'd have to understand that it's a brand of fake grass, and it's a term someone invented to mean "fake grassroots movement" and you'd have to understand what the phrase "grassroots movement" is.

An average Chinese person who encounters "astroturfer" for the first time would probably wonder what it means, just like we wondered what "water scouts" mean...

Yeah, "水军". Let me Baidu/deepl that for you:

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%BD%91%E7%BB%9C%E6%B0%B4%E5%...

Online water scouts are hired online writers who publish specific information about specific content in the Internet. They are usually active in e-commerce websites, forums, microblogs and other social networking platforms. They influence normal users by disguising themselves as ordinary Internet users or consumers and by posting, replying and spreading blog posts.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...