Why Mike Cannon-Brookes is on a Chinese military database

Mike Cannon-Brookes is rich, politically active and keen to share his views on Twitter. It makes the software billionaire an ideal target for those putting together a database of influential Australians.

But it is not Mr Cannon-Brookes' presence on the Overseas Key Individuals Database which is noteworthy, but how an algorithm written in Shenzhen, by a programmer who may not even speak English, has so comprehensively found the pressure points.

In the thousands of social media posts and articles referencing Mr Cannon-Brookes every week the algorithm has pulled out those which provide biographical information and others with the potential to create a fault line in society.

It speaks to the idea that social media is the best intelligence-gathering tool yet invented and how, with the help of big data and algorithms, China has been able to compile comprehensive profiles on 2.5 million foreigners.

This would have been impossible in the analogue age as the sheer amount of human hours involved would have made the task prohibitively expensive. It is known as "information mobilisation".

For Mr Cannon-Brookes it has captured data about his wealth, recent property purchases and family.

The database pulls out a gossip column item noting the Cannon-Brookes' "are preparing to pack their tribe of four children off for a white Christmas in Kalamazoo, Michigan", where the parents of his wife Annie live.

It also notes the couple purchased Widgee Waa, a farm near the NSW Southern Highlands town of Kangaloon, and that they live next to his Atlassian co-founder, Scott Farquhar.

There are references to charity purchases and Mr Cannon-Brookes' appointment as an adjunct professor at the University of NSW.

Then it pivots to a Facebook post from Sky News host Chris Kenny criticising Mr Cannon-Brookes for "wacky virtue-signalling" after he encouraged Atlassian staff to participate in the Global Climate Action strike.

It also captures Mr Cannon-Brookes' criticism of Prime Minister Scott Morrison for taking a lump of coal into Parliament and him questioning Malcolm Turnbull on how Australia can achieve 100 per cent renewable energy.

Given the climate fault line that has grown increasingly wide in Australia over recent years, this has possibly been identified as an area that could be exploited via social media manipulation at some later point.

The database compiler China's Zhenhua, which openly talks of its links to the Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army, has boasted of its capacity to wage "hybrid warfare" through the amplification of social media voices to sow discord or spread disinformation.

Ramping up any pile-on around a progressive billionaire for his environmental views or criticism of conservative politicians, fits into its charter of "sowing discord" and "promoting conflict" within a society.