The Chinese government has launched “the world’s largest online disinformation operation” against ordinary American citizens, politicians and business owners. That’s according to a CNN investigation that analyzed court documents and public reports from various social media companies. The wave of attacks, “often cowardly and deeply personal in nature,” was part of a well-organized and increasingly brazen intimidation campaign by the Chinese government against U.S. citizens.
The U.S. State Department says the tactic is part of a broader, multibillion-dollar effort backed by Xi Jinping’s presidency to shape the world’s information environment and silence Beijing’s critics. Victims are facing a barrage of tens of thousands of social media posts calling them “traitors,” “dogs” and other racist and homophobic slurs. The aim would be to put victims in a state of constant fear and paranoia. Technology and social media companies have already shut down thousands of profiles but are struggling to contain the spread of new bot accounts emerging every day.
In the campaign known as “Spamouflage” or “Dragonbridge,” hundreds of thousands of accounts on all major social media platforms not only track critics of the Chinese Communist Party, but also aim to discredit U.S. politicians, denigrate American companies and with them conflicting with China’s interests and taking over online conversations that could portray the CCP in a negative light. Private researchers have been tracking the campaign since it was discovered more than four years ago, but only in the last few months have federal prosecutors and Facebook’s parent company Meta publicly acknowledged that the operation had ties to Chinese police.
Meta announced in August that it had deleted nearly 8,000 accounts linked to Spamouflage in the second quarter of 2023 alone. Google, which owns YouTube, told CNN it has closed more than 100,000 accounts in recent years, while X’s corporate blogs tell the story of blocking hundreds of thousands of “state-backed” or “state-linked” Chinese accounts. Given the relatively low cost of these operations, experts who monitor disinformation warn that the Chinese government will continue to use these tactics to try to steer online discussions toward a CCP-like narrative, with strong criticism of Washington and the democratic value system .
Experts quoted by CNN say there have been signs of a shift in Chinese strategy in recent years. In the past, Spamouflage focused primarily on issues of national importance to China. Recently, however, reports associated with the group have stirred controversy on global issues, including developments in the United States. According to a report from cybersecurity firm Mandiant, some fake accounts posed as Texas residents and urged people to protest plans to build a rare earth processing plant.
According to a report last August, some posts called racism an “indelible disgrace to American democracy” and denounced the “cultural genocide of Native Americans” committed by the United States. Another post said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was “plagued by scandals.”
In a report last April, the U.S. Department of Justice condemned Chinese officials’ attempt to exploit the second anniversary of George Floyd’s death by threatening to publish posts about his murder to “expose law enforcement brutality” in the United States. The same officials were also reportedly assigned to “work on the 2022 midterm elections and criticize American democracy.”
Spamouflage “is evolving in terms of tactics and themes,” said Ben Nimmo, global head of threat intelligence at Meta. “Our task is to further strengthen our defenses and inform people, especially with regard to the election year,” emphasized Nimmo.
Asked for comment on Spamouflage’s alleged ties to the Beijing authorities, Chinese Embassy in Washington spokesman Liu Pengyu denied any wrongdoing: “China always respects the sovereignty of other countries. The United States’ allegations do not correspond, they have no factual evidence or legal basis. They are politically motivated and China strongly denies them.”