Since the outbreak of Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19), a variety of news has emerged. The Associated Press released a nine-month joint investigation with the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, a U.S. think tank, on the 15th, stating that China had launched its first “global digital disinformation operation” between the outbreaks. The report alleges that China launched its first “global digital disinformation campaign” during the outbreak, using its growing influence in Western social media to fabricate and disseminate false claims that the U.S.-made arsenic pneumonia was a biological weapon.
The following are the six main points of the investigation.
Since 2016, Russia has generally been seen as the largest source of disinformation, but after the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak, this lead was taken by China, which continues to spread conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus.
- China’s “online army” has been on the rise on foreign social media platforms, with the number of Chinese diplomatic accounts registered on Twitter tripling and Facebook tripling since mid-2019. These accounts assist in creating and spinning false news on various online platforms in multiple languages.
The 11 tweets by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian last March accusing the U.S. military of “bringing a virus into Wuhan” were quoted more than 99,000 times in at least 54 languages, involving hundreds of millions of users.
- China “inherited” the Russian disinformation strategy and structure and disseminated it through the Kremlin’s established Western propaganda channels, with China, Russia and Iran working together to strengthen the disinformation, including cross-referencing, reporting and backtracking to enhance its credibility.
- In the first half of 2020, millions of interactions related to Wuhan pneumonia on Twitter involved 829 accounts from the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian governments, with tweets from official Chinese media and Foreign Ministry accounts being the most frequently retweeted.
On the one hand, the Chinese Foreign Ministry claims to be firmly opposed to disinformation, but on the other hand, it emphasizes that when faced with disinformation, it is legitimate to “state the facts” to refute and clarify it.
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