In mid-November, CNN published an article discussing China’s Spamouflage, or ‘Dragonbridge,’ online disinformation campaign and its harassment of Americans. The article mentioned that in addition to politicians and private citizens, businesses had been targeted by the operation, which has been active since 2019. Specifically, the article notes that Spamouflage has sought to “disparage American companies at odds with China’s interests.”
Off the bat, this sounds alarming. It begs the question, “how at risk are private companies of being targeted and harassed online by China’s disinformation network?” Further, what do those risks look like? And how would a company know if it were being targeted by said campaign?
Upon further research, the CNN article mentioned one instance where Spamouflage accounts targeted a rare-earth processing facility to be built in Texas by Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths. According to Mandiant, in 2022, China utilized inauthentic social media and forum accounts to feign concerns over the potential environmental and health impacts of the plant. The accounts — some posing as Texas residents — even called for protests and echoed real criticisms in their messaging.
Additionally, the campaign targeted the Canadian rare earths mining company Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp and the American rare earths supplier USA Rare Earth. The fake accounts made similar posts as the ones directed toward Lynas, centered around alleged environmental and labor concerns regarding potential mining facilities (Mandiant).
Fortunately for these companies, Spamaouflage’s efforts were deemed ineffective. But as of the publication of CNN’s article, this is where the story ends. There is currently no other substantial evidence that is publicly available of China targeting and harassing private businesses over competing interests.
Now, this isn’t to say that it won’t happen again. Mandiant noted in its report that the targeting of these companies was unprecedented and marked an overall shift in the direction of the Spamouflage campaign. In the future, more companies could be at risk of being targeted by the Chinese government’s online harassment tactics, particularly if they are competing with or at odds against the Communist Party’s interests. However, the dearth of examples shows that at present, businesses are not the main target of this campaign and likely face the lowest risk of being targeted compared to other groups, like dissidents, activists, journalists, and politicians.
Additionally, the ineffectiveness of the Spamouflage campaign demonstrates that businesses would likely face limited risks in being targeted. The posts surrounding the rare-earth metal industry received very little engagement, and other content from the campaign has also received limited engagement.
Until other companies fall victim, it may be difficult to discern a list of indicators that a company is being targeted by the campaign. But until then, businesses can be mindful of these hallmark features of the campaign:
- Coordinated messaging across multiple social media platforms
- Accounts with AI-generated photos, changing identities, shared identities, little post history, and copy-pasted posts
- Low quality posts made with poor English or written in Chinese
- Activity during Beijing’s working hours
As relations between China and other countries continue down tumultuous paths, China and Hong Kong’s business environments worsen, and Xi Jinping further clamps down on narratives surrounding Beijing and the flow of information outside of the country’s borders, the CCP’s disinformation activity is likely to increase. But until Spamouflage’s operatives can create content that appears authentic enough to garner real engagement and pose real risks, businesses can rest assured and focus on the more pertinent threat at hand: Russian disinformation.
The views expressed in this article belong to the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of Geopoliticalmonitor.com.
