China’s efforts to influence US are bigger than TikTok: NPR

A new law passed this week would ban TikTok in the United States unless ByteDance, its Chinese owner, sells the popular video app.

National security is at the center of the bipartisan concerns in Washington that motivate the law. Lawmakers say they are concerned that the Chinese government could lean on ByteDance to use TikTok to absorb Americans’ data, surveil them and spread false and misleading claims to American voters.

“It’s not hard to imagine how a platform that facilitates so much commerce, political speech and social debate could be covertly manipulated to serve the goals of an authoritarian regime,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, said this week.

Many lawmakers who supported the bill said classified intelligence briefings have raised alarms about TikTok, but they have not yet made that information available for public scrutiny. Some members of Congress have responded, including Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who said that while he is concerned about the collection of user data by many social networks, he had seen “no credible evidence” that TikTok poses a threat alone. because its parent company is based in China.

So what do we know about China’s efforts to manipulate Americans through social media, and what role does TikTok play?

China’s growing information operations

While much of the debate over foreign election interference has focused on Russia since 2016, China poses a growing threat, according to the intelligence community, technology companies and independent researchers.

Beijing has stepped up its online information operations in recent years in support of its broader goals, experts say. China “intends to sow doubts about American leadership, undermine democracy, and expand Beijing’s influence,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote in its report. annual threat assessment at the beginning of this year.

In past cycles, that took the form of trying to shape U.S. policy toward China. For example, in a handful of 2022 midterm elections, Beijing sought to boost candidates seen as pro-China and counter those seen as opposed to its interests, according to one report. december report of the ODNI.

More recently, those efforts have focused on exploiting existing partisan divisions in the United States, including “the Chinese actually entering American audience spaces, posing as Americans, and posting inflammatory content about current events or issues.” social or political,” said Clint Watts. general manager of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center.

Researchers of microsoft as well as the non-profit organization Institute for Strategic Dialogue have identified accounts on Microsoft said some accounts even appeared to be vote American voters divide them most on what issues.

“Joe Biden ‘belongs in a nursing home,’ not the White House,” one account posted, but the post also included Mandarin characters, apparently due to incorrect browser settings, ISD said.

Other China-linked accounts used AI-generated images to spread a baseless conspiracy theory that the US government deliberately set the Maui wildfires last year to test a military “climate weapon,” Microsoft. saying.

Microsoft and ISD linked the posts they identified to Spamouflage, a long-running Chinese network of fake accounts on social networks such as Facebook, X and TikTok. Spam accounts have previously promoted attacks on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, praised China’s response to COVID-19, and posted videos with AI-generated news anchors promoting Chinese leadership.

Last year, Facebook owner Meta said Spamouflage is the largest covert influence operation it has ever disrupted, and linked it to Chinese authorities. However, despite their breadth, these efforts have failed to gain many followers or have a significant impact.

“The sheer scale of spam has previously been offset by its ineffective tactics and lame content; if operators find a strategy that works, potentially augmented by generative AI, it could start to become a real problem,” wrote Elise Thomas , senior analyst at ISD. .

TikTok has been used in these publicly identified Chinese operations, but investigators say they have not seen a particular focus on the app that goes beyond other popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. (TikTok is also difficult to access for researchers.)

China’s information campaign against Taiwan

One place where China has tried to use TikTok more aggressively to influence politics is Taiwan, which held its own presidential election in January.

As in the United States, China’s goal is to undermine democracy, said Chihhao Yu, co-director of the Taiwan Information Environment Research Center (IORG).

He said the strategy is to “create an alternative worldview for Mandarin readers in Taiwan, of course, but also around the world for Mandarin-speaking communities.”

Yu’s group has found what they call proxy accounts on TikTok and YouTube that share videos identical to those posted on official state-controlled accounts in Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, without revealing its origin. Sometimes, the videos even appear on TikTok before being posted to official Douyin accounts.

“That means (the Chinese government) doesn’t necessarily need its official footprint on TikTok to have influence on TikTok,” Yu said.

Other researchers in Taiwan have identified influencers on TikTok who appear to be using the same scripts to talk about divisive issues, such as migrant workers. Some influencers who typically post videos about fashion and beauty posted apparently scripted videos alleging voter fraud.

Still, there is no suggestion that the Chinese government was coordinating with ByteDance on the use of TikTok influencers and proxy accounts.

And ultimately, these efforts to influence Taiwanese voters were unsuccessful: the incumbent independence candidate opposed by Beijing won re-election.