China’s law enforcement peppered more than 50 social media platforms with pro-Beijing messages

[aziqbal]

China behind ‘largest ever’ digital influence operation​

Groups linked with China’s law enforcement peppered more than 50 social media platforms with pro-Beijing messages, Meta says.

In multiple online forums and social media sites — including Medium, YouTube, Twitter and Quora — even more users targeted Chinese dissidents and promoted Beijing's talking points | China Photos/Getty Images


People with ties to China’s law enforcement agencies conducted the largest known covert digital influence operation aimed at discrediting the West and promoting Beijing's agenda across more than 50 social media and online platforms, according to a report published Tuesday by Meta.

On Facebook, clandestine users with ties to the authoritarian government racked up more than 550,000 followers by spouting lies about the United States' alleged role in creating the COVID-19 pandemic and criticizing Washington's support of Taiwan.

On Reddit, other China-linked keyboard warriors falsely implicated former British Prime Minister Liz Truss in the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

And in multiple online forums and social media sites — including Medium, YouTube, Twitter and Quora — even more users targeted Chinese dissidents and promoted Beijing's talking points.


he campaign, which lasted over a year, garnered few, if any, eyeballs from real social media users, based on Meta's analysis. But the breadth of the international influence campaign by those associated with the Chinese government highlights how Beijing is vying for prominence alongside Moscow as the most active spreader of disinformation ahead of major elections in the European Union, U.S. and the United Kingdom next year.

The China campaign "is the largest covert influence operation that's currently active in the world today," Ben Nimmo, Meta's global threat intelligence lead, told POLITICO. "Pick a place on the internet, and they're probably trying to go there to spread effectively a fairly simple set of messages that praise China and criticize the United States and for Western foreign policies."

In a separate covert influence campaign, Meta found groups in Russia had created fake news websites that mimicked those of the Washington Post and Fox News to promote the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine — a tactic the social media giant first flagged last September.

"Ahead of all the elections next year, we do expect that they will keep on trying," Nimmo said in reference to how China- and Russia-based disinformation groups were ratcheting up their influence campaigns. Meta alone has broken up four China-linked operations in the last year, he said.

Chinese office hours​

Meta did not give further detail on why it had attributed this latest covert digital influence operation to Chinese law enforcement.

But the yearlong campaign included scores of China-based teams — all working from the same digital infrastructure and messaging playbook — pumping out pro-Beijing talking points across almost 8,000 Facebook accounts and 15 Instagram accounts. The operation also spread to include YouTube videos, Quora responses and even fake comments posted on a forum for Luxembuger Wort, a Luxembourg newspaper.

The Chinese influence peddlers worked regular office hours, based on Meta's analysis of the covert campaign. The unknown state-linked actors took regularly breaks for lunch and dinner, all done within Chinese timezones — despite the tricksters pretending they were located across the Western world.

The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Despite the sophisticated tactics, the campaign's impact was negligible, at best.

The China-based group made rudimentary mistakes like posting a Mandarin social media post under an English-language headline, and vice versa. Others misstated dates like when Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, traveled to Taiwan. Even more made outlandish statements — like the United Nations had voted against the U.S. in a recent resolution — were quickly mocked by real digital users, Meta said.

"They don't yet seem to have really reached real people," Nimmo said.

China behind ‘largest ever’ digital influence operation

Groups linked with China’s law enforcement peppered more than 50 social media platforms with pro-Beijing messages, Meta says.

www.politico.eu

 

[Menthol]

I don't see it as a problem.

Mainstream media is also hugely pro-USA.

Down to it's just a direct copy-paste with the same narrative.

The question, is it a problem for a country who adopts democracy and free press to have a different opinion?

The problem for democratic country is not the pro-Beijing messages, but if there's no pro-Beijing messages.

The media above should be arrested for misleading the public and bending the core value of democracy.


In North Korea, there's a public election.

Yes, you will surprise that North Korea president is not a dictator because he was elected by the people.

Except the people can only vote for one.


In USA, there's a free press.

Yes, you will be surprised that USA citizens are not being censored, because there's a free press and free speech.

Except people can only have one narrative, one story.