Fake accounts on social media? China hits back with Graphika report on pro-U.S. influence operation
You may remember in the summer of 2019 we first heard about the Chinese government running fake accounts on American social media attacking Hong Kong protestors when Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were shutting down hundreds of them. Dubbed “Spamouflage Dragon” by Graphika, the social media analytics firm with several reports on China-linked influence operations over the last few years, these imposter accounts were used to support the Chinese government and discredit its critics, both at home and abroad.
According to a PBS report in April 2021, these pro-China accounts posted messages or videos praising China and mocking the United States, from America’s response to the pandemic to Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
A joint investigation by AP and the Atlantic Council also found in early 2021 China’s global digital disinformation campaign on Western social media spreading stories suggesting it was the U.S. that created COVID-19 as a bioweapon.
But do we remember how the Chinese government responded to the exposure of its influence operations on American social media?
The Chinese government basically admitted to running those fake accounts in their awkward answers to reporter’s questions. On one occasion in Feb. 2021, for instance, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson described using American social media as “a channel to share information and communicate with people in foreign countries.” On those accounts spreading stories about the U.S. creating coronavirus? The spokesperson said that the U.S. just didn’t want to hear China’s objective voice while it insisted on spreading rumors about the Wuhan lab leak.
Well, what a difference a couple of years make? China waited and got its revenge.
On Aug. 22, Graphika along with the Stanford Internet Observatory published a joint report titled, “UNHEARD VOICE - Evaluating five years of pro-Western covert influence operations.” It analyzed a web of interconnected accounts that Twitter and Meta had found and removed earlier, stating that these accounts promoted the interests of the United States and its allies while opposing countries including Russia, China, and Iran.
As the headline of a VOA report on Aug. 25 alarmed, “For First Time, Facebook, Twitter Take Down Pro-US Influence Operation.” It continued that in recent years, it was always influence operations by China, Russia and Iran that had been shut down. Now a U.S.-based online influence operation was found using fake people and fake followers pushing a narrative, especially when some of the fake accounts had posted sources linked to the U.S. military.
On Sept. 26, triumphantly, of course, China’s People’s Daily reprinted a piece originated from China’s Central TV News titled, “American media: U.S. military uses fake accounts to carry out information warfare.” It quoted a Washington Post story of Sept. 20 titled “The Pentagon’s alleged secret social media operations demand a reckoning” as well as the findings of the Graphika-Stanford report. It also went back years to quote Hillary Clinton and other U.S. officials on how the U.S. had used the Internet as a great tool to promote American values, shape public opinions, infiltrate and influence other countries ideologically and politically.
On Sept. 30, People’s Daily again ran an “International Observation” piece titled “More evidence revealed of U.S. fabricating information.” It mentioned the Graphika-Stanford report, a Washington Post story, a New York Times story, and called the U.S. “the biggest lie maker.” It also said the U.S. had a history of spreading disinformation to other countries. It gave the example a Cold War project called Operation Mockingbird which Wikipedia said the CIA ran in the 1970s with American journalists to disseminate CIA propaganda through domestic US media to influence public opinion internationally. The Mockingbird project was said to be a response to the Prague-based and Moscow-funded International Organization of Journalists that controlled reporters at major newspapers in Europe.
Also, once again, as they did many times before, People’s Daily quoted what former CIA director Mike Pompeo once said in 2019 while talking about his experience at the agency, “I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole.” Those words since have become as a very sharp and very useful knife China holds in its hands against the U.S.