The report notes that the Chinese Communist Party used hundreds of Twitter users to walk disinformation and create discord in the United States, among other things.
A report by Cardiff University in the United Kingdom found that a sophisticated social media operation believed to be linked to the Chinese Communist regime played a key role in spreading disinformation, creating discord and amplifying calls for violence in the United States during and after the U.S. election last November.
The Crime and Security Research Institute (CSRI), an interdisciplinary unit at Cardiff University whose research aims to help “address local, national and global crime and security issues,” released a two-part report on Jan. 27 that describes Communist China-related influence operations on Twitter. The report describes Communist Party-related influence operations on Twitter. These actions include interfering in the U.S. presidential election and creating discord.
CSRI found that this network of China (CCP)-linked Twitter accounts was detected as being involved in influence operations against U.S. politics and COVID-19, a pneumonia disease caused by the CCP virus, in the run-up to the U.S. election.
“Seven days before the U.S. presidential election, a network of more than five hundred accounts was detected as engaging in coordinated disinformation campaigns. Some accounts operated in English, while others operated in Chinese.” The report said.
CSRI found that the network of Twitter accounts spread anti-American propaganda, attempted to negatively depict Anti-Communist sentiment in Hong Kong, and amplified calls for violence around the Time of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. The report found that while some of the tweets pushed by the network echoed themes used by right-wing groups in the United States in their messaging, “the vast majority of tweets referring to President Trump were filled with negative sentiment.
Evidence links these accounts to the Chinese Communist Party
CSRI Director Professor Martin Innes said in a statement that while only Twitter can fully authenticate an account’s affiliation, analysis by a research division of the institute using open-source traces “strongly suggests multiple links [to China (the Chinese Communist Party).
CSRI said strong evidence of a link to China (CCP) includes the use of Chinese and, when English is used, evidence that the English comes from a machine translation tool. Other factors pointing to an association with China (CCP) include a focus on topics that focus on China’s (CCP’s) geopolitical interests, account activity only during Chinese office hours, and limited activity during Chinese national holidays.
While CSRI says it cannot be certain that the network is supported by the Chinese (CCP) regime, the report notes that the weight of the evidence strongly suggests CCP support behind it and that, “on the balance of probabilities, it is unlikely that the network operates without some official awareness and/or guidance. The degree of influence and intervention in U.S. politics by these accounts is significant.”
Innis said, “The accounts’ behavior is sophisticated and well-trained and appears to be designed to avoid detection by Twitter’s countermeasures.”
Innis added that the evidence his team has gathered about the group’s activities “marks the network as a significant attempt by foreign actors to influence the trajectory of U.S. politics.”
Spreading Disinformation
CSRI also found that a key theme related to the events at the Capitol promoted by actors linked to China (the Chinese Communist Party) was the portrayal of the United States as a “chaotic country on the brink of political collapse and major disruption. At times, this description was combined with anti-Trump sentiment. For example, the report says, these people promote the idea that “Trump’s final madness cannot stop his doom.”
CSRI also found that another major theme promoted by these China (CCP)-linked individuals was the “denigration of Hong Kong,” the portrayal of Hong Kong as affected by riot-related instability, “ungrateful for China’s (CCP) efforts,” and the struggle to to cope with the outbreak of COVID-19. Others portrayed British and U.S. diplomatic efforts regarding the Hong Kong crisis as “interference.
Another focus of the propagandists was COVID-19, according to the report, including “using the virus to slander the incompetence of multiple governments” and denouncing Trump, especially for calling the virus the “China Virus. These accounts also promote the notion that the CCP virus originated outside of China. The report cites attempts to link the virus to a U.S. laboratory in Fort Detrick, for example.
Former U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe previously assessed that the Chinese Communist Party interfered in the U.S. 2020 election.
In a letter to Congress in January, Ratcliffe wrote that based on all available intelligence sources and excluding political considerations or undue pressure, it was concluded that the People’s Republic of China (CCP) sought to influence the 2020 U.S. federal election.
In an article published in the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 3 last year, Ratcliffe emphasized that “the Chinese Communist Party is the greatest security threat to the United States and the greatest threat to democratic freedoms around the world since World War II” and that “resisting Beijing‘s attempts to reshape and dominate the world is the challenge of our generation. The challenge.”
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