Two years ago, researchers uncovered details about a disinformation network that made a coordinated effort to push Chinese government messaging outside the country. Now, a separate research group says the network is still at work — despite efforts by social media companies to stop it.
More than 2,000 accounts continued to spread Chinese propaganda in the last year, according to a new report from the disinformation research group Miburo. The accounts have promoted falsehoods such as the denial of human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, where the Communist Party has carried out repressive policies against the Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic minority, and COVID-19 misinformation, like the conspiracy that the U.S. military developed the coronavirus as a bioweapon.
The accounts point to a "well-resourced, high-skill actor that keeps reappearing,” said Nick Monaco, the director of China research at Miburo. He added that the timing and messaging of the posts in the network aligned perfectly with public messaging put out by the Chinese government in the last year.