recent mask removal Chinese disinformation campaign This policy, aimed at influencing the 2024 U.S. presidential election, draws renewed attention to foreign interference in our democratic process, particularly Russia and China’s efforts, and our nation’s failure to defend against such interference. are collecting.
It also calls for swift and decisive action by the Biden administration to make clear to China, Russia and others that this type of malign activity will not be tolerated.
After the 2016 election, much of the focus on foreign election interference has been on Russia, but by short-sightedly focusing on Moscow, the United States also seems to have ignored the growing threat posed by China. is.
as report The New York Times reports that Chinese influence operations called “spamflage” are not only influencing our elections; echo “Russian influence campaign before 2016 election” — but Also “It disillusiones voters by denigrating America, a country riddled with urban decay, homelessness, fentanyl abuse, gun violence, and crumbling infrastructure.”
While there is currently no indication that China and Russia have colluded in spamfrage or other malicious campaigns, both countries are working to not only directly undermine President Biden, but to undermine U.S. democracy as a whole. That’s clear.
Most alarmingly, spamfrage appears to be connected to the Chinese government and is a state-sanctioned effort to undermine our democracy.
Last April, the U.S. Department of Justice Paid For their roles in influence operations targeting American and Chinese dissidents in the United States, 44 Chinese nationals (40 employees of the Ministry of Public Security, the Chinese government agency responsible for law enforcement and counterintelligence); (4 employees of the China Cyber Security Administration)
According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, it appears very likely that spamfrage is the campaign described in its indictment.
Importantly, if it is confirmed that the Chinese government has given the green light to these attacks, President Biden will issue a statement to China and Russia that these violations of election integrity are unacceptable and must stop. This must be made clear, otherwise economic sanctions against China will be strengthened. step.
As the Institute for Strategic Dialogue points out, the themes promoted by Spamflage apply to several specific narratives. The 2024 election will be divisive and harmful for the United States, with a negative Biden narrative, an ambiguous Trump narrative, the age of both candidates, and, to a lesser extent, the health of the election as a whole. will be damaged.
for example, series Among X’s posts, an account associated with China displayed an AI-generated image of Trump and Biden fighting with lightsabers, along with the captions “US fighting escalates” and “America goes back 150 years.” A similar photo was captioned, “The Collapse of American Democracy.”
Until then, Times paper memo There was no “overtly partisan slant” to China’s operations, meaning that spamfrage took a more confrontational approach toward Biden than toward Trump when not targeting the foundations of our democracy. It is clear that
Indeed, multiple posts depicted Biden as a drug user and referenced his son Hunter’s legal troubles. Additionally, as noted by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the majority of these attacks were directed at Biden, although both candidates’ ages were negatively described.
Conversely, when discussing Trump, the Times quote Posts depicting President Trump’s “anti-hero status as making him unstoppable” give a relatively more positive image of Trump than of Biden.
Additionally, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue notes that Chinese social media trolls also highlight divisive policy issues such as abortion and crime, but the latter is not framed as a partisan issue, but rather a relationship between American society and power. He points out that it is a commentary on decline.
The reason spamoflage is so difficult to detect and so troubling is that the operatives are impersonating far-right figures on social media. Tactics from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. refer He works as a “MAGAflage” who incites divisions over hot social issues from a right-wing perspective. These MAGAflage accounts are Been formed True connections to Trump supporters and far-right celebrities like Alex Jones.
This is different from previous Russian operations. Elise Thomas, senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said: Said The Times had “never seen anything along those lines before,” she said, adding that the new approach makes China’s explanation seem more authentic and perhaps more effective. I believe it represents a more sophisticated approach.
Quite simply, a misinformation campaign, whether from Russia or China, can significantly change the outcome of a presidential election. But even if there were no quantitative impact on the election, it would certainly deepen our country’s already deep social, political, and cultural divisions.
Similarly, it is clear that Russia and China, two highly adversarial governments, both feel free to undermine our democracy to serve their own interests.
Regardless of who wins the next election or which candidates we prefer, one thing Americans must agree on is that foreign governments should not interfere in our elections. This will make it difficult to combat this long-term Chinese operation and any future operations. much more important.
Looking forward, the Biden administration started While we have highlighted and condemned China’s influence activities, particularly those aimed at silencing foreign critics and spreading disinformation, more needs to be done.
The United States’ major adversaries, China, Russia, Iran, Syria, and North Korea, are all relatively closed societies with limited or no substantive democracy, let alone in these campaigns. Not to mention the social media networks used, the US is forced to fight. This fight was fought with one hand tied behind his back. But that doesn’t mean President Biden or President Donald Trump will be allowed to take a hard line on the issue.
It is clear that the United States must work with the private sector to eradicate and expose these threats. So American voters can be confident that what they’re seeing is real and not part of a hostile influence campaign.
Additionally, we must work harder to ensure that these overseas campaigns reach significant numbers of Americans. By making more people aware of these efforts coming out of Beijing and Moscow, we can limit their ability to sway undecided voters and change our nation’s discourse.
In other words, our open economy and democratic institutions make us more vulnerable to these types of operations than our adversaries, but we cannot ignore these threats. With bipartisan cooperation, legislation to address security gaps, and collaboration with the private sector, our democratic system can withstand these attacks.
Douglas E. Schon is a political consultant and founder and partner of Shane Cooperman Research. He served as an advisor to President Clinton and Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign. His new book is “The End of Democracy? Russia and China are rising, and America is retreating. ” Saul Mangel is a senior strategist at Shane Cooperman Research.
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