U.S. officials believe the operation is related to the Chinese government and have been monitoring its evolution, according to a source familiar with the situation. During the 2020 election, U.S. officials were watching to see if the operation could be used to spread misinformation, but ultimately assessed that the Chinese government avoided doing so because it did not want to provoke any response, the source added.
Months later, experts have observed an “explosion of activity” around the world and the move to make physical protests in the United States “proves they are a very serious threat,” Mandiant Threat Intelligence Vice President John told CNN Hulquist.
“This direct call to physical mobilization is a significant development compared to previous activity, potentially indicative of an emerging intention to motivate real-world activity outside China’s territories,” the report says. “While this attempt did not appear to be successful, we believe it is critical that observers continue to monitor these attempts in the event that the network performs more degrees of organic participation.”
For example, in April, experts saw thousands of fake accounts calling on Asian Americans to protest racial injustice in the United States and to “misinform themselves about the origins of the virus.” While experts found no evidence that these publications were successful in mobilizing protesters, the report says it “provides a quick alert that the actors behind the activity may be beginning to explore, however limited, more direct means of influencing the internal affairs of US. ”
Although there has been limited engagement with these pro-Chinese accounts, the massive scope of the operation shows that the responsible actors have “significantly expanded their online footprint and appear to be trying to establish a presence on as many platforms as possible. possible to reach a variety of global audiences, ”according to Mandiant experts.
“Over the last two years, we have seen this threatening actor evolve, from the types of content they publish to the tactics they use to amplify it. However, the most significant features of this network remain its scale. and persistence, despite its low commitment That’s why we’ve taken an aggressive approach to identifying and removing misinformation from this network, ”said Shane Huntley, director of Google’s threat analysis group.
“We anticipate that they will continue to experiment to drive greater engagement and encourage the rest of the community to continue to track down this actor, shedding light on their operations and taking action against them,” he added.
Cyber espionage from China against the United States has increased since the Covid-19 explosion began, and Beijing has constantly tried to shape the global narrative through open and covert means.
For months, Chinese officials have openly spread false and misleading information about the virus and its origins.
But the United States and several of its European allies have also been more cautious in attributing misinformation and other malicious cyber activities to China than other state actors, namely Russia and Iran in recent years. .
When pressured on the issue In May 2020, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen denied allegations that the EU watered down a report on coronavirus misinformation after being pressured from China .
While Mandiant and Google experts say they have so far not seen these specific pro-Chinese accounts go into specific content for the election, they warned that responsible actors could be prepared for a broader impetus of misinformation that could very well be carried out in a similar way to the Moscow campaign to get involved in the 2016 U.S. elections with a similar intent to what U.S. intelligence agencies said be deployed by Moscow during the 2016 race.
Beijing is not the only U.S. adversary related to major online efforts to undermine confidence in democratic institutions. German officials on Monday blamed Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU for a piracy campaign aimed at politicians ahead of Germany’s general election in September. According to investigators, the same piracy group has also pursued American allies such as Poland with false narratives about NATO.
CNN’s Sean Lyngaas contributed to the reports.