The fake Twitter page supporting huawei.
LONDON – Brussels-based trade lawyer Edwin Vermulst, who has worked with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei for years, didn’t think twice before agreeing to write an article for the company criticizing a Belgian policy that could cost Huawei huge contracts.
After the article was published on a Dutch-language website on Dec. 17, he went on to other work. “That was the beginning and the end of my involvement,” he said.
Little did he know that the article had taken on a Life of its own. It quickly became part of a covert pro-Huawei influence campaign in Belgium centered on 5G networks, the high-speed wireless network technology that has now become the center of the geopolitical conflict between the United States and China.
According to Graphika, a research firm that studies misinformation and fake social media accounts, first, at least 14 Twitter accounts posing as telecom experts, writers and academics shared posts by Vermeerst and many others attacking Belgium’s draft legislation restricting “high-risk” providers like Huawei from building 5G systems in the country. suppliers from building the country’s 5G system. The pro-Huawei accounts used computer-generated profile pictures, a clear feature of the fake campaign.
Next, Huawei executives reposted the fake accounts to make the articles more visible to policymakers, journalists and business leaders. According to Graphika, Liu Xiaowen, Huawei’s director of public affairs and communications for Western Europe, whose certified Twitter account has 1.1 million followers, shared 60 tweets from these fake accounts in three weeks last December. Huawei’s official account in Europe has more than 5 million followers and has shared 47 such tweets.
Liu Xiaowen, a Huawei executive based in Europe, retweeted a post by Edwin Wimoust posted by a fake Twitter account. A Huawei employee, Mike Bai (ph), posted the article on his own account. via graphika
Ben Nimmo, a Graphika investigator involved in the investigation into the pro-Huawei operation, said the practice suggests a new twist on social media manipulation. Tactics once used primarily for government goals – such as Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election – are being used to achieve corporate goals.
“This is business, not politics,” Nimmo said. “It’s not one country against another country. This looks like an operation to promote the interests of a large multinational corporation – and it’s against a European country.”
Graphika, which has provided research for the Senate Intelligence Committee’s (SIC) investigation into Russian disinformation, said there was not enough evidence to determine who was behind the action in support of Huawei.
In a statement, Huawei said it had begun an internal investigation “to find out exactly what happened and whether there was any misconduct.”
“Huawei has clear social media policies based on international best practices, and any claims that these policies are not being followed will be taken very seriously,” Huawei said. “Some social media and online activities have been brought to our attention that suggest we may not be following these policies, as well as Huawei’s broader values of openness, honesty and transparency.”
Twitter said it had removed the fake accounts after Graphika alerted it to the activity on Dec. 30.
“Platform manipulation is strictly prohibited under Twitter’s rules,” the company said in a statement. “If there is clear evidence, we will take action against the accounts in question, which may include permanent suspension.”
2019 Huawei service center in Brussels, Belgium.MASHID MOHADJERIN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Huawei, arguably the crown jewel of China’s tech industry, has suffered as the U.S. has been blocking the company’s equipment from being used in new 5G networks around the world. The Trump administration has said the company poses a threat to national security, arguing that the Chinese government may be using Huawei’s communications technology for espionage. Huawei has vigorously denied the allegations.
The Trump Administration has taken a number of steps to hinder Huawei, including cutting off its supply of key semiconductor components, and the Biden administration has not committed to retaining those policies. Britain announced a ban on Huawei products last year; Germany and other European countries are also discussing their own restrictions.
The 5G contract is expected to be worth billions of dollars.
Belgium is Home to the headquarters of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), which highlights the risks Huawei faces in Europe, its second-largest market outside China. Until now, Huawei and China’s ZTE have dominated the telecommunications equipment market in Belgium, according to research firm Strand Consulting. But as the Belgian government considers new restrictions, the country’s wireless carriers are shifting 5G orders to their rivals.
“They’re concerned that this could spread to the rest of the world,” said John Strand, founder of Strand Consulting.
Nimmo said the implementation of the supported Huawei operation in Belgium appeared clumsy and easily identifiable. But he said the incident shows how covert Internet activity can cleanse seemingly plausible content like Wimmerst’s article through a series of websites and fake social media accounts to make it appear neutral and authentic.
Graphika first uncovered suspicious posts about Belgium’s 5G policy on some Twitter accounts used in an earlier pro-China operation, followed by this pro-Huawei operation. Belgian magazine Knack and Michiel van Hulten, director of Brussels-based Transparency International, also found suspicious behavior in spreading pro-Huawei messages.
Fourteen fake accounts whose voices were amplified by Huawei executives spread positive articles about the company, as well as negative views on Belgium’s 5G policy. The three-week campaign appears to be heavily tied to a Dec. 30 deadline for Belgium to review its 5G policy.
Huawei’s European Twitter account retweeted two fake accounts, which posted the same article on two websites.
To the average Twitter user, these fake accounts look real. Their profiles included generic profile pictures and professional information. Many of the accounts had more than 1,000 followers.
But after closer examination, investigators found the problem with these accounts. Many of their followers appeared to be bots. Those photos had the characteristics of those made by artificial intelligence software, perfectly centered but with some minor flaws, such as asymmetrical glasses. Online merchants would sell such dummy photos to avoid the risk of being identified that might come with using real people’s photos.
The fake accounts share articles and comments from several online publications, including the EU Reporter, which publishes government news on its website, and its affiliated media outlets, including the London Globe and the New York Globe.
“If the Belgian government excludes specific suppliers, who pays the bill?” reads the headline of a news article posted on several EU Reporter websites.
Colin Stevens, publisher of the EU Reporter, said in an email that he was “unaware of any fake Twitter accounts promoting our articles. Stevens said Huawei has paid EU reporters for opinion pieces in the past, but those articles always carried a disclaimer. He said the Belgium 5G story was commissioned independently and Huawei was not involved.
“EU reporters would never intentionally engage in a disinformation campaign,” Stevens said in an email.
Investigators have found articles similar to Vermeerster’s in a handful of cases where Huawei paid them, and the articles included disclaimers about financial arrangements. Other articles critical of the 5G policy appeared on sites that accepted user-generated content without censorship, with author photos that looked like the computer-generated images in fake Twitter profiles.
Such cases will become increasingly common as disinformation becomes more commercialized, said Phil Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute. In a recently released report, Oxford researchers found that PR firms were involved in 63 of the online disinformation campaigns in 2020. Such operations are typically conducted on behalf of politicians or governments, but can also be applied to businesses, he said.
“There’s a growing flow of money there,” Howard said. “Large-scale social media influence operations are now part of the communications tools for any large multinational corporation.”
In Belgium, the move appears to have had little effect other than to draw unwanted attention to Huawei’s lobbying. There are no signs that policymakers will abandon plans to restrict Huawei’s access to 5G networks. The draft legislation must now go to the country’s parliament for consideration.
And the trade lawyer, Wimmerst, said he was unaware of the fake social media campaign until a reporter contacted him for the story. Although he called the behavior “silly” and “stupid,” he wants to continue working for Huawei.
“Lawyers get paid for legal advice,” he said. “Once that article is in the public domain, then anyone can do what they want with it.”
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