Researchers and government officials say secret Chinese accounts are impersonating American supporters of former President Donald J. Trump online, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking divisions in the country and threatening to undermine the November election. He has previously attacked President Biden.
These reports signal a potential shift in Beijing's strategy to influence American politics, more aggressively targeting specific candidates and political parties, including Biden.
Despite recent efforts to cool relations between the two countries, reflecting Russia's influence campaign before the 2016 election, China continues to exploit partisan divisions to undermine Biden administration policies. It seems like he's trying.
Some Chinese accounts pretend to be die-hard Trump fans, including one for X, who describes himself as a “father, husband, and son” and was “MAGA!!” These accounts have mocked Biden's age, shared fake images of him in a prison jumpsuit, and promoted Trump's “Make America Great Again” slogan while claiming that Biden worships Satan. He also claimed that he was a pedophile.
“We've never seen anything along those lines before,” said John, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit research institute that has discovered a small number of fake accounts posing as Trump supporters. Ellis Thomas says.
Thomas and other researchers linked this new activity to a long-standing network of accounts associated with the Chinese government known as spamoflage. Some of the accounts they detailed previously posted pro-China content in Chinese, but have resurfaced in recent months under the guise of genuine Americans writing in English.
In a separate project, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington research institute, identified 170 fake pages and accounts on Facebook that spread anti-American messages, including sharp attacks on Mr. Biden.
The effort has been more successful in attracting the attention of actual users than previous Chinese efforts to influence public opinion in the United States, making it more difficult for researchers to identify. . Researchers say the overall political leanings of the race remain uncertain, but the Chinese government has made more positive statements than Biden's second term, despite some sometimes hostile rhetoric against the country. It is increasingly likely that President Trump is calculating that a second term would be preferable.
There is already a growing sense of alarm within the U.S. government about China's activities.
In February, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that China was expanding its influence campaign to “sow doubt about U.S. leadership, undermine democracy, and expand Beijing's influence.” The report expressed concern that the Chinese government may use increasingly sophisticated techniques to try to influence U.S. elections “to ignore criticism of China.”
Ms. Thomas, who has studied Chinese intelligence operations for many years, said the latest effort suggests a more subtle and sophisticated approach than previous operations. She said this is the first time she has encountered a Chinese account that so convincingly poses as a pro-Trump American while successfully attracting real engagement.
“The worry was always: What if one day they wake up and take effect?” she said. “Potentially, this could be the beginning of them waking up and becoming effective.”
Online disinformation experts look ahead to the months leading up to the November election with growing anxiety.
As the war with Ukraine continues, Russia is using increasingly subtle influence strategies against the United States to spread its isolationist agenda, according to intelligence assessments. Mock news sites target Americans with Russian propaganda.
Efforts to combat false narratives and conspiracy theories are already challenging, but the future will include waning moderation efforts on social media platforms, political backlash, rapidly advancing artificial intelligence technology, and widespread We also have to fight against information fatigue.
Until now, China's efforts to promote its ideology in the West have gained momentum, first by promoting official propaganda about its cultural and economic superiority, and then by beginning to denigrate democracy and stir up anti-American sentiment. I've had a hard time getting it.
Cybersecurity firm Mandiant reported that China-linked influence group Dragonbridge sought to discourage Americans from voting in the 2022 midterm elections while highlighting the country's political polarization. . Researchers say they experimented with a fake American persona posting content in the first person, but it was poorly executed and largely ignored online.
Recent campaigns related to China, primarily from a right-wing perspective, join polarizing debates around issues such as gay rights, immigration, and crime, seeking to capitalize on divisions already evident in American politics. It is said that
According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, in February, a China-linked account on X, which assumed a Western name along with a reference to “MAGA 2024,” shared a video from RT, a Russian television network controlled by the Kremlin. He claimed that: Biden and the Central Intelligence Agency were sending neo-Nazi gangs to fight in Ukraine. (This story was debunked by the research group Bellingcat.)
The post caused a stir the next day when Alex Jones, a podcaster known for spreading false claims and conspiracy theories, shared it with his 2.2 million followers on the platform.
The account, which referred to itself as “MAGA 2024,” had taken steps to appear authentic and said it was run by a 43-year-old Trump supporter from Los Angeles. However, the institute's report said the photo used a profile picture taken from a Danish man's travel blog. The account was founded 14 years ago by him, but its first published post was in April of last year. In the post, the account tried to link Biden to disgraced investor and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, without evidence.
Thomas said there are at least four other similar accounts operating, all with ties to China. One account paid for a subscription to X, which offered perks like better promotions and a blue checkmark, a sign of verification given to users whose identity was verified before Elon Musk purchased the platform. Like other accounts, it shared pro-Trump and anti-Biden claims, including QAnon conspiracy theories and baseless accusations of election fraud.
The posts included an exhortation to “be strong, too, not to slander or create rumors about China” and awkward phrases such as “Good job?” indicates that the user's web browser is set to Chinese.
One of the accounts appears to have made a gaffe in May when it responded to another post in Mandarin. Another site posted primarily in Mandarin until last spring, then went silent for a time, then resurfaced with all English content. These reports are a form of “true authoritarianism” in which Israel orchestrated efforts by U.S. lawmakers to ban TikTok, a popular app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It has been criticized as a means to undermine the government.
These accounts sometimes amplified or repeated content from the Chinese influence campaign “Spamflage,” which was first identified in 2019 and found to be associated with a department of the Ministry of Public Security. In the past, it posted content attacking Hong Kong Communist Party critics and protesters almost exclusively in Chinese.
In recent years, it has shifted its focus to the United States, portraying the country as overwhelmed by turmoil. By 2020, she began posting in English and criticizing not only U.S. foreign policy but also domestic issues such as the response to the coronavirus and natural disasters such as last year's Hawaiian wildfires. Ta.
China, which denies meddling in other countries' internal affairs, now appears to be building a network of accounts across a number of platforms for use in November. “This is reminiscent of the Russian style of operation, but the difference is more in the intensity of the operation,” said Margot Fourde Hardy, a former analyst at Viginum, a French government agency that fights online disinformation.
In the past, many Spamouflage accounts followed each other, posted sloppily in multiple languages, and blitzed social media users with the same messages across multiple platforms at the same time.
Newer accounts are harder to spot because they are trying to gain organic followers and appear to be controlled by humans rather than automated bots. One of X's accounts also had linked profiles on Instagram and Threads, making it appear authentic.
Meta, which owns Instagram and Threads, last year removed thousands of fraudulent accounts linked to Facebook spamflage and other accounts on Instagram. The company called one of the networks it took down “the largest cross-platform influence operation ever known.” Mehta said hundreds of related accounts remained on other platforms, including TikTok, X, LiveJournal and Blogspot.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has documented a new organized group of Chinese accounts linked to a Facebook page with 3,000 followers called “War of Somethings.” The report highlights that China's efforts persist despite Meta's repeated efforts to remove spamflage accounts.
“What we're seeing is that the campaign continues unabated,” said Max Lesser, a senior analyst at the foundation.