Beijing-linked online operatives found to be impersonating Americans to sow division and chaos ahead of 2024 elections

By arseniotoledo // 2024-10-21

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Agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are impersonating American citizens on social media platforms to influence the outcome of the 2024 elections. The report comes from the intelligence company Graphika, which warned that social media platforms with access to large sections of U.S. society are being infiltrated by popular profiles that promote content intended to push divisive messages ahead of the election. The operation, dubbed "Spamouflage" or "Dragonbridge," pushes a mixture of spam, targeted propaganda and altered videos and images of politicians onto social media platforms like TikTok. (Related: Poll reveals majority of Americans view TikTok as a tool for spreading Chinese influence in the United States.) Spamouflage has reportedly been influencing U.S. elections 2017, at the earliest, but in recent months has stepped up its activities as this crucial election approaches. Graphika's research team believes the operation has leveraged thousands of popular accounts across more than 50 websites, forums and social media platforms. "The key takeaway from this report [is that Spamouflage has] become more aggressive in its efforts to infiltrate and sway U.S. political conversations," warned Jack Stubbs, head of Graphika's research team. "This matters because it shows Chinese influence operations targeting the U.S. are evolving, engaging in more advanced deceptive behaviors and directly targeting these organic but hyper-sensitive rifts in society."

China denies connection to Spamouflage's influence operations

An example of a sophisticated Chinese influence account is the Harlan Report, an account on TikTok that presents itself to appear like a startup online news program like many others. Its biography on TikTok claims that its goal is to "make American media great again," indicating that it may have a conservative lean in its reporting. Harlan Report has for months been posting videos that seemed genuinely aimed at exposing government corruption and pushing back against the mediascape that it believes has been far too dominated by left-wing sources. The analysis noted that Harlan Report's posts on Tiktok often feature altered audio and erroneous subtitles to suggest that politicians made remarks that were more offensive than they truly were. The account posted dozens of videos from May to September when TikTok permanently banned the account for violating its community guidelines. One of its videos in July garnered over 1.5 million views before the handle was shut down. Another major example highlighted by the intelligence company shows how Spamouflage operatives impersonate American anti-war activists online. Using multiple accounts on X, formerly Twitter, the operatives helped make viral memes that labeled former President Donald Trump a "fraud" and called President Joe Biden a "coward." The willingness to attack both Democrats and Republicans shows that the operation's messaging does not appear to favor one side of the political spectrum and that its goal is just to amplify all existing criticisms toward American society, government and major politicians to sow division and chaos. In a statement, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., denied all allegations that the CCP is the main handler of Spamouflage's operations. "China has no intention and will not interfere in the U.S. election and we hope that the U.S. side will not make an issue of China in this election," said Liu. Watch this clip of former President Donald Trump's National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt discussing how Vice President Kamala Harris' tax plan incentivizes job growth in China, not in the United States. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

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China denies connection to Spamouflage's influence operations

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