Graphika: ‘China is trying to influence U.S. presidential election’

According to network analysis firm Graphika, Chinese state-sponsored hackers are aggressively trying to influence the political discourse and outcome of the 2024 United States presidential election.

Analysts have stumbled upon an online campaign that pushes both spam messages and targeted propaganda onto the internet. The influence operation is a well-known, but historically unsuccessful spam campaign that originates from China and is dubbed ‘Spamouflage’ or ‘Dragonbridge’.

Spamouflage has been active since 2017 and has recently stepped up its activities in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The group doesn’t favor one or the other side of the political spectrum, but instead spreads lies and disinformation about both Democratic and Republican candidates.

Its goal is to sow doubt in the legitimacy of the electoral process and spread false narratives about social issues, including gun control, immigration and the Israel-Hamas conflict. According to researchers, the content is AI-generated and has targeted president Joe Biden, former president Donald Trump, and more recently vice president Kamala Harris.

Graphika has identified 15 Spamouflage accounts on X and one account on TikTok, all claiming to be U.S. citizens or media outlets focused on peace, human rights, and information integrity.

“Despite attempts to masquerade as U.S. users and engage with hot-button issues, the accounts failed to garner significant traction in authentic online communities discussing the election,” Graphika says.

However, that has recently changed, says Jack Stubbs, who manages Graphika’s research team. He mentions one video in particular that was viewed 1.5 million times, which mocked president Biden’s speech at NATO’s 75th anniversary summit. The video has since been removed.

“The key takeaway from this report is that Spamouflage has become more aggressive in its efforts to infiltrate and sway U.S. political conversations. This matters because it shows Chinese influence operations targeting the U.S. are evolving, engaging in more advanced deceptive behaviors, and directly targeting these organic but hyper-sensitive rifts in society,” he tells Reuters.

Graphika’s analysts presume that Spamouflage will continue its efforts to influence political discourse in the United States throughout the 2024 presidential election cycle to leverage social division and depict the U.S. as a failing system of governance with weak leaders.

China is denying all allegations. “China has no intention and will not interfere in the U.S. election, and we hope that the U.S. side will not make an issue of China in the election,” a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington points out to Reuters.

Allegedly, China isn’t the only country trying to influence the upcoming presidential election. In August, Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center pointed the finger at several Iranian hacking groups who have launched influence campaigns on trending election-related topics to stir up controversy ahead of the election, which takes place in November.