Russia and China are using “massive digital arsenals” to interfere in Western democracies, while their messaging around the war in Ukraine had become increasingly aligned, a EU report said yesterday.
“Foreign information manipulation and interference is a major security threat” to the union, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said in the report. “We must not underestimate the power that this has over us, or the intentions of those behind it.”
In its latest annual report on the subject, Brussels said that last year it tracked disinformation attacks against more than 80 countries and over 200 organizations. The war in Ukraine remains a major target for Russia — but events such as the Olympics in Paris, elections in Moldova and farmers’ protests in Germany were also in the crosshairs.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The aim is to destabilize our societies, damage our democracies, drive wedges between us and our partners, and undermine the EU’s global standing,” Kallas said.
Brussels has become better at connecting the dots to expose the campaigns by Moscow and Beijing to shape opinion in the EU, the report said.
It said that Russia uses a complex web of “state and non-state actors” from social media influencers to state media and official spokespeople to create and amplify its messages.
China for its part appears to be stepping up the use of “both private PR companies and influencers to create, amplify and launder content aligned with China’s political interests worldwide,” it said.
The report stopped short of accusing Russia and China of actively colluding to spread disinformation, saying the “cross-pollination between the two seems to remain largely opportunistic.”
However, it said that in the month that marked 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, “a significant alignment in Sino-Russian narratives emerged, with hostile messaging blaming NATO for the conflict escalation.”
Meanwhile, two analyses carried out by the third European External Action Service Report on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference to be published later today address the issue of China’s information laundering, specifically citing President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day speech last year.
The EU had detected attempts to manipulate the Taiwanese and US elections within EU states last year, the report said, adding that rising tension in the South China Sea was an issue ripe for Chinese information manipulation.
Chinese state-run media have continued to expand their businesses abroad to increase the number of channels through which the Chinese government’s message could be heard, it said.
Beijing is stepping up efforts to hire public relations companies, foreign live streamers and celebrities to create content aimed at growing Chinese political benefits on a global scale, and manipulating content to put the nation in a more favorable light, the report said.
The report cited “Volume News,” a group connected to 142 Web sites known for disseminating fake news, saying that while the group could not be directly tied to a Chinese-owned PR firm, it put out content that would benefit China.
The report said these sites usually translated the articles directly from Chinese state-run agencies, such as Xinhua news agency and the Global Times, and edited them to fit the style and language of other countries.
The report cited as an example Lai’s Double Ten speech, which the Global Times had criticized as a provocation against China, with the same content swiftly appearing across all 140 sites under Volume News.
Additional reporting by CNA
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