(DCWatchdog.com) – A new study by the intelligence company Graphika revealed that a Chinese social media influence campaign is impersonating U.S. voters as part of an operation to attack U.S. politicians and spread divisive messages ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
This campaign is part of a known Chinese state-linked effort known as “Spamouflage” or “Dragonbridge.” It combines spam with targeted propaganda across the internet.
Spamouflage has been active since at least 2017 but has intensified as the election approaches. It uses thousands of accounts across more than 50 websites, forums, and social media platforms.
“The key takeaway from this report,” said Jack Stubbs, who manages Graphika’s research team, “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,” Stubbs added.
Moreover, Graphika highlighted one example where the Chinese operation impersonated American anti-war activists. Using multiple accounts on X, the operatives created memes depicting Trump as a “fraud” in an orange prison uniform and called Biden a “coward.”
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, stated, “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.”
Facebook previously linked the campaign to Chinese law enforcement, calling it “the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world.”
In addition, Spamouflage’s messages do not appear to favor one political side—neither Democrats nor Republicans—but aim to amplify existing criticisms of American society and government.
Graphika identified 15 Spamouflage accounts on social media platform X and one on TikTok, all claiming to be U.S. citizens or media outlets. It also highlighted other profiles linked to these accounts on YouTube and Instagram that were suspended by the time the report was completed.
A YouTube spokesperson said, “The channel flagged by Graphika was previously identified and terminated as part of our investigations into coordinated influence operations, and had a very small number of views at the time it was removed.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, confirmed that it had removed Spamouflage activity from its platforms in two instances as part of its ongoing enforcement against the operation.
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