Pro-China social media campaign hits new countries, blames U.S. for COVID
September 9, 2021 | International
A misinformation campaign on social media in support of Chinese government interests has expanded to new languages and platforms, and it even tried to get people to show up to protests in the United States, researchers at security company FireEye and Google said. The operation has spread to thousands of handles on dozens of sites around the world. China is now employing misinformation techniques that Russia has used for years. False information about COVID-19 has been a major focus. Accounts on social media in Russian, German, Spanish and other languages have asserted that the novel coronavirus emerged in the United States before China and that it was developed by the U.S. military. Multiple Russian-language LiveJournal accounts used identical wording: “U.S. Ft. Detrick was the source of COVID-19,” referring to the U.S. Army’s Fort Detrick installation in Maryland.
Other priorities for the group include criticizing fugitive Chinese propagandist Guo Wengui and his ally, former Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon, and exploiting concerns about anti-Asian racism… (Excerpts from Reuters)
