The Chinese government seems to be using false social media accounts pretending to be U.S. voters and asking their followers about their opinions on domestic political topics, as stated in a recent report by Microsoft.
“The Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) has noticed a small but consistent increase of additional fake accounts that we believe with moderate confidence are managed by the [Chinese Communist Party],” Microsoft stated.
The accounts mostly post about U.S. domestic topics, such as drug use, immigration policy, and racial tensions, and often inquire if their followers agree, according to the report.
“This method could be to encourage more interaction, or perhaps to gain insight into how Americans view US politics,” Microsoft stated. “There may be more such accounts being used to gather intelligence around important voting demographics in the United States.”
In one case, an account discussed a Senate proposal that aimed to link border funding with aid to Ukraine and Israel and asked its followers, “What's your response?” Another post criticized the Biden administration for a missing F-35 jet and asked, “What do you think about this?”
Entities connected to Chinese influence operations are also increasingly utilizing generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create “sophisticated, captivating visual content” targeted at the U.S., according to Microsoft.
During the wildfires in Maui last August, one such entity spread conspiratorial content alleging that the U.S. government purposely started the fires to test a military-grade weather weapon.
It utilized “AI-generated images of burning coastal roads and residences to make the content more attention-grabbing,” based on the report.
