A fake online news outlet implicating Mehta in a Russian intelligence operation blames the Biden administration's failures for clashes on American college campuses. The Chinese Communist Party-controlled newspaper said the police crackdown exposed America's “double standards and hypocrisy” when it comes to free speech.
In X, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanani posted a cartoon of police arresting young protesters in the guise of the Statue of Liberty. “Imprisonment” #freedom In America,” he wrote.
As protests against the Gaza war spread across the United States, countries say Russia, China and Iran are using the protests to score geopolitical points abroad and stoke tensions in the United States. Researchers identified overt and covert efforts. This is to expand the protests since they began.
At least for now, there is little evidence that countries have provided material or organizational support to protests, and Russia unwittingly supported Black Lives Matter protests before the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. It was the same as organizing a gathering of participants.
Nevertheless, the campaign has portrayed the United States as a country in social and political turmoil. In the past two weeks alone, Russian, Chinese and Iranian state media have published nearly 400 English-language articles about the protests, according to NewsGuard, an organization that tracks online misinformation. Countries have also unleashed waves of content through fake accounts and bots on social media platforms such as X and Telegram, or in Russia's case, websites created to imitate Western news outlets.
“We're trying to throw salt in the wound just because our adversaries can throw salt,” said Darren Linville, director of Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub, which has identified campaigns by all three countries. ” he says. “The more we fight amongst ourselves, the easier life is for them and the more they can get away with.”
Researchers worry that some foreign influence operations are also pivoting towards the November presidential election, seeking to stoke partisan tensions, denigrate democracy and promote isolationism. ing. Since the Gaza war began in October, all three adversaries have used propaganda and disinformation to undermine Israel and its main ally, the United States, while expressing support for Hamas and the Palestinians in general. has been released in large quantities.
The campus protests that have gained momentum in recent weeks have prompted a wave of propaganda focused on the Biden administration's strong support for Israel, which they say does not reflect national sentiment at home while undermining its international standing. Conversion is now possible.
“The Biden administration's policies are complicating the domestic situation,” said an article on Truthgate, one of the few websites Mehta published last year, referring to Russian intelligence operatives known as “doppelgangers.” said it was created to spread propaganda. American news outlets reported on Wednesday. “In their rush to help a controversial ally, they have completely forgotten about domestic politics. Now the situation seems irreversible.”
Influence efforts are being tracked by researchers at Clemson University and NewsGuard, as well as the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the threat intelligence firm Recorded Future.
The protests have also drawn attention to a Chinese covert operation known as spamfrage, which was first linked to a department of the Ministry of Public Security in 2019. Some of X's posts claimed that the United States was “exhibiting totalitarianism.” Similar phrases – “Why are there so many violent police officers in the world?” and “Expel, arrest, suppress!”. — a statement repeated on several accounts identified by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington research organization focused on national security.
Max Lesser, a senior analyst at the foundation, called the “massive volume” of protest-related content “a clear example of foreign adversaries actively exploiting the ongoing domestic crisis.”
Many of the accounts linked to Spamouflage share similar content. One on The profile picture was of Korean pop singer Winter. Although the location was listed as the United States, the posts were typically posted during the day in Asia and the content often contained grammatical errors.
Clemson's Linville said another X account was also affiliated with a spamoflage operation known as Dragonbridge, which reposted messages from a prominent pro-Palestinian organization in New York City and encouraged protesters to “campaign.” He called for people to rush to the area. University in the city.
But researchers have not detected any direct efforts to organize protests or incite violence. Rather, the focus was on highlighting the divisions that the war in Gaza has exposed in U.S. public opinion and its potential impact on government policy.
Recorded Future analyst Brian Liston said that in the case of Russia, the campaign was “trying to inflame tensions on both sides of the protest debate,” praising the protesters while also making anti-Semitic comments. accused of being.
In many cases, campaigns simply amplify the sentiments expressed by protesters and their supporters. Chen Weihua, an outspoken editor and columnist for the English-language state-run newspaper China Daily, recently talked about Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and “Sex in the Sex” actress Cynthia Nixon, among others. I reposted the message to X. city. “
For China, the scenes of U.S. police officers in riot gear arresting young demonstrators come after months of clashes between security forces and protesters in Hong Kong in 2019. It has special sympathy because it has faced harsh criticism from the United States and other democracies. The deprivation of the political freedoms that the government had promised to maintain in the former British colony.
“When Hong Kong students destroyed schools, blocked roads, and threw petrol bombs, the United States instructed the Hong Kong government to exercise restraint and not to disrupt reasonable demonstrations,” the statement said in connection with the spamoflage. one of the accounts declared. “Now faced with American students, the police will take direct action and arrest them!”
Melanie Smith, director of research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a research institute that studies online disinformation, polarization and extremism, said China's approach to the Biden administration has become significantly more aggressive.
Her organization and others previously identified early efforts to undermine President Biden's re-election prospects. The effort includes creating fake accounts masquerading as those run by Americans critical of Biden's policies.
“Their content is relatively positive about how young people are unlikely to vote for Biden on this issue,” Smith said of China's response to the protests.
Brett Schaefer, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund who studies information operations, said the motives for China, Russia and Iran's involvement are different. But they all benefited from highlighting stories that undermine global perceptions of the United States. He said Iranian state media, which has long supported Hamas, published more stories about the protests than Russia or China, amplifying criticism of the police response by American commentators such as Jackson Hinkle. Ta.
The emphasis on protests follows similar efforts to criticize the $95.3 billion foreign aid package for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine that Congress passed and Biden signed last month.
The Institute for Information Epidemiology, a research group that studies negative campaigns, said that Russian intelligence operations called “doppelgängers” were posting content criticizing aid measures or focusing on political debates surrounding aid measures. Ta. The goal was to portray the United States as an unreliable global ally, with some posts claiming that the United States had abandoned Israel.
Instead, the post suggests, Israel and other countries should seek new partnerships with Russia and China. Another series of posts shared an article from a website masquerading as Fox News in which former President Donald J. Trump claimed to “stop the looting of America's budget.”
