Chinese State-Linked Influence Operation Spamouflage Masquerades as U.S. Voters to Push Divisive Online Narratives Ahead of 2024 Election
- Chinese state-linked influence operation (IO) Spamouflage has become more aggressive in its efforts to influence U.S. political conversations ahead of the 2024 presidential election. This includes expanding its use of personas that impersonate U.S. voters on social media platforms and spreading divisive narratives about sensitive social issues in the U.S.
- Through Graphika’s ATLAS intelligence reporting, we identified 15 Spamouflage accounts on X and one account on TikTok claiming to be U.S. citizens and/or U.S.-focused peace, human rights, and information integrity advocates frustrated by American politics and the West. We also identified a cross-platform Spamouflage persona operating as an inauthentic U.S.-focused media outlet.
- In the run-up to the 2024 election, these accounts have seeded and amplified content denigrating Democratic and Republican candidates, sowing doubt in the legitimacy of the U.S. electoral process, and spreading divisive narratives about sensitive social issues including gun control, homelessness, drug abuse, racial inequality, and the Israel-Hamas conflict. This content, some of which was almost certainly AI-generated, has targeted President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and, more recently, Vice President Kamala Harris.
- 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. The rare exception was an inauthentic media outlet operating on TikTok which posted a video in July that has received 1.5 million views to date.
- This report corroborates and builds on research the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) published in April 2024, which documented a set of four Spamouflage accounts on X posing as supporters of Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. In conjunction with ISD’s analysis, our findings suggest that Spamouflage’s attempts to pose as U.S. users are more expansive than previously reported.
- We assess that Spamouflage and other Chinese IO actors will almost certainly continue their efforts to influence U.S. political conversations throughout the 2024 presidential election cycle, leveraging social divisions in a polarized information environment to portray the U.S. as a declining global power with weak leaders and a failing system of governance.
- We assess that Spamouflage and other Chinese IO actors will very likely continue to experiment with and expand on new tactics, techniques, and procedures, including using generative AI tools to create deceptive content and scale their activities, developing higher-quality inauthentic personas, and co-opting authentic online voices, such as social media influencers.