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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 4 september 2024
China-linked ‘Spamouflage’ network mimics Americans online to

sway US political debate

By DAVID KLEPPER report. “We will continue to
Associated Press remove deceptive accounts
WASHINGTON (AP) — When and harmful misinformation
he first emerged on social as we protect the integrity
media, the user known as of our platform during the US
Harlan claimed to be a New elections,” a TikTok spokes-
Yorker and an Army veter- person wrote in a statement
an who supported Donald emailed on Tuesday.
Trump for president. Harlan Compared with armed con-
said he was 29, and his pro- flict or economic sanctions,
file picture showed a smiling, online influence operations
handsome young man.A can be a low-cost, low-risk
few months later, Harlan means of flexing geopolitical
underwent a transformation. power. Given the increasing
Now, he claimed to be 31 reliance on digital commu-
and from Florida. nications, the use of online
New research into Chinese disinformation and fake infor-
disinformation networks mation networks is only likely
targeting American voters to increase, said Max Lesser,
shows Harlan’s claims were senior analyst for emerging
as fictitious as his profile pic- threats at the Foundation for
ture, which analysts think was Defense of Democracies, a
created using artificial intel- A woman walks with her ballot to a vacant voting booth at City Hall in San Francisco, March 5, national security think tank
ligence.As voters prepare to 2024. Associated Press in Washington. q
cast their ballots this fall, Chi-
na has been making its own tests against the war in Gaza
plans, cultivating networks of and attempting to hack into
fake social media users de- the email systems of the two
signed to mimic Americans. presidential candidates.
Whoever or wherever he re- China, however, has taken
ally is, Harlan is a small part a more cautious, nuanced
of a larger effort by U.S. ad- approach. Beijing sees little
versaries to use social me- advantage in supporting
dia to influence and upend one presidential candidate
America’s political debate. over the other, intelligence
The account was traced analysts say. Instead, China’s
back to Spamouflage, a Chi- disinformation efforts focus
nese disinformation group, on campaign issues partic-
by analysts at Graphika, a ularly important to Beijing
New York-based firm that such as American policy to-
tracks online networks. ward Taiwan while seeking
Known to online research- to undermine confidence in
ers for several years, Spam- elections, voting and the U.S.
ouflage earned its moniker in general.
through its habit of spreading Officials have said it’s a
large amounts of seemingly longer-term effort that will
unrelated content alongside continue well past Election
disinformation. Day as China and other au-
“One of the world’s largest thoritarian nations try to use
covert online influence op- the internet to erode support
erations an operation run for democracy.
by Chinese state actors has Chinese Embassy spokes-
become more aggressive in person Liu Pengyu rejected
its efforts to infiltrate and to Graphika’s findings as full of
sway U.S. political conversa- “prejudice and malicious
tions ahead of the election,” speculation” and said that
Jack Stubbs, Graphika’s “China has no intention and
chief intelligence officer, told will not interfere” in the elec-
The Associated Press. tion.
Intelligence and national X, the platform formerly
security officials have said known as Twitter, suspend-
that Russia, China and Iran ed several of the accounts
have all mounted online in- linked to the Spamouflage
fluence operations target- network after questions were
ing U.S. voters ahead of the raised about their authen-
November election. Russia ticity.
remains the top threat, in- The company did not re-
telligence officials say, even spond to questions about
as Iran has become more the reasons for the suspen-
aggressive in recent months, sions, or whether they were
covertly supporting U.S. pro- connected to Graphika’s