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The Chinese government has interfered in the 2024 United States elections through propaganda and disinformation campaigns, primarily linked to its Spamouflage influence operation. [1] The efforts come amidst larger foreign interference in the 2024 United States elections.
In March 2021, the National Intelligence Council released a report that said the Chinese government "considered but did not deploy" influence efforts in 2020. [2] A declassified U.S. intelligence assessment in 2023 said with "high confidence" that China, Russia, Iran and Cuba attempted to influence the 2022 midterms. It said that China had tacitly approved "efforts to try to influence a handful of midterm races involving members of both US political parties" and "portray the US democratic model as chaotic, ineffective, and unrepresentative". The assessment said that China had used images generated by artificial intelligence to mimic Americans online and provoke discussion on divisive social issues, and that they believed they would face less scrutiny during the midterms and that U.S. retaliation would be lower. [3] It also said that since 2020, senior Chinese intelligence officials had issued directives to "intensify efforts to influence US policy and public opinion in China's favor" and "magnify US societal divisions". [4] In January 2024, the FBI and Justice Department issued a court order to address Chinese hacking and infiltration of key U.S. infrastructure in the transportation and maritime sectors. [5]
During APEC United States 2023, Joe Biden and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping met in a separate summit on November 15 where Xi told Biden China would not interfere in the 2024 presidential election after being asked by Biden. This assurance was given again by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi to Biden's national security advisor Jake Sullivan on the weekend of January 26-27 during a meeting in Bangkok after Sullivan brought up the topic. CNN reported in January 2024 that the topic had repeatedly come up during senior-level meetings between the two nations which were held following a shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon by the U.S. military after it traversed the continental United States in February 2023. [4]
U.S. intelligence agencies have described Chinese government interference in the elections as aggressive but overall cautious and nuanced, not targeting any particular candidate, but instead focusing on issues important to Beijing such as Taiwan, and "undermining confidence in elections, voting, and the U.S. in general." [1] [6] However, China has specifically denigrated President Biden using fake accounts. [7] According to The Washington Post , a senior official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said China is "not attempting to influence the presidential race, but it is seeking to do so in state-level and regional races" as they did during the 2022 midterms. [8] Officials from the ODNI and FBI have outlined China's use of generative artificial intelligence tools and promotion of divisive content focused on drug use, immigration, and abortion to foster anti-Americanism. [9]
As early as April 1, 2024, The New York Times reported that the Chinese government had created fake pro-Trump accounts on social media "promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November." [7]
In August 2024, cyber security firm CyberCX released a report that it said uncovered Beijing-based "Green Cicada," one of the largest publicly identified networks and which may feature more than 8,000 accounts on social media platform X, with a suspected intention to interfere with the U.S. elections. [10]
Research firm Graphika reported that Chinese government interference has been linked to its Spamouflage influence operation and has involved networks of fake social media users that mimic Americans on social media sites such as X and TikTok in an attempt to manipulate and sway public opinion. [11] According to a September 2024 Graphika report, "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." [11]
In August 2024, a threat report by Meta stated it detected 11 'coordinated inauthentic behavior' networks linked to China. [12] Microsoft detected attempts by Chinese actors to inflame tensions around campus protests, noting an increased capability to increase divisions and influence election activity. [12]
In October 2024, The Washington Post reported on increasing Chinese government attempts to influence "tens" of down-ballot races with explicitly antisemitic attacks and conspiracy theories against politicians as part of its Spamouflage influence operation. The report highlighted one covert influence campaign against Representative Barry Moore who recently backed sanctions against China and is not Jewish, calling him "a Jewish dog" who won because of "the bloody Jewish consortium" among other antisemitic posts. It also reported on increasing efforts to inflame tensions by focusing on hot-button issues such as police violence, Black Lives Matter, immigration, and influencing U.S. foreign policy toward Taiwan. [13] It said state-run media campaigns by China also spread false conspiracy theories about the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season that The Associated Press described as using "social media and state news stories to criticize responses to past U.S. natural disasters" and sow division among Americans. [14] Spamouflage has also targeted the congressional races of Michael McCaul and Marsha Blackburn as well as Marco Rubio due to their outspoken criticism of the Chinese government and its policies. [15] [16]
On October 25, 2024, the New York Times reported that Chinese government-linked hackers had targeted the phones of Trump and Vance. [17] [18] The hacks came a month after The Wall Street Journal reported on Chinese hackers breaching several U.S. internet service providers as part of its "Salt Typhoon" cyber espionage campaign. [19]
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has seen evidence of attempts to “influence and arguably interfere” with the upcoming U.S. elections, despite an earlier commitment from Xi Jinping not to do so. [20] [21] In an interview with Time , President Biden said that there was evidence of China interfering in the 2024 elections, and that "all the bad guys are rooting for Trump". [2]
In a September 2024 interview with the Associated Press, chief intelligence officer Jack Stubbs of Graphika stated that Chinese covert influence operations had "become more aggressive" in their "efforts to infiltrate and to sway U.S. political conversations ahead of the election". [1] [12]
In 2023, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that China was interfering or had interfered in the 2022 election, stating that they "adhere to the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs" and that "China does not interfere in U.S. elections". [4] In response to a 2024 report by Graphika that outlined China's use of its Spamouflage network to mimic American social media users, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu stated that the findings were "prejudice and malicious speculation" and that "China has no intention and will not interfere" in the election. [1]
Cyberwarfare by Russia includes denial of service attacks, hacker attacks, dissemination of disinformation and propaganda, participation of state-sponsored teams in political blogs, internet surveillance using SORM technology, persecution of cyber-dissidents and other active measures. According to investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, some of these activities were coordinated by the Russian signals intelligence, which was part of the FSB and formerly a part of the 16th KGB department. An analysis by the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2017 outlines Russia's view of "Information Countermeasures" or IPb as "strategically decisive and critically important to control its domestic populace and influence adversary states", dividing 'Information Countermeasures' into two categories of "Informational-Technical" and "Informational-Psychological" groups. The former encompasses network operations relating to defense, attack, and exploitation and the latter to "attempts to change people's behavior or beliefs in favor of Russian governmental objectives."
Russian espionage in the United States has occurred since at least the Cold War, and likely well before. According to the United States government, by 2007 it had reached Cold War levels.
Cyberwarfare by China is the aggregate of cyberattacks attributed to the organs of the People's Republic of China and various related advanced persistent threat (APT) groups.
The Democratic National Committee cyber attacks took place in 2015 and 2016, in which two groups of Russian computer hackers infiltrated the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer network, leading to a data breach. Cybersecurity experts, as well as the U.S. government, determined that the cyberespionage was the work of Russian intelligence agencies.
The Russian government conducted foreign electoral interference in the 2016 United States elections with the goals of sabotaging the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. According to the U.S. intelligence community, the operation—code named Project Lakhta—was ordered directly by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The "hacking and disinformation campaign" to damage Clinton and help Trump became the "core of the scandal known as Russiagate". The 448-page Mueller Report, made public in April 2019, examined over 200 contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring any conspiracy or coordination charges against Trump or his associates.
The United States Intelligence Community concluded in early 2018 that the Russian government was continuing the interference it started during the 2016 elections and was attempting to influence the 2018 United States mid-term elections by generating discord through social media. Primaries for candidates of parties began in some states in March and would continue through September. The leaders of intelligence agencies have noted that Russia is spreading disinformation through fake social media accounts in order to divide American society and foster anti-Americanism.
Konstantin Viktorovich Kilimnik is a Russian–Ukrainian political consultant. In the United States, he became a person of interest in multiple investigations regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, particularly due to his ties with Paul Manafort, an American political consultant, who was a campaign chairman for Donald Trump.
Shelby Pierson is the top election security official of the American intelligence community, the chair of the Election Executive and Leadership Board. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats instituted the position and appointed Pierson to fill it in July 2019. The board includes representatives from the intelligence community and other federal agencies coordinating on election security.
Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections was a matter of concern at the highest level of national security within the United States government, in addition to the computer and social media industries. In 2020, the RAND Corporation was one of the first to release research describing Russia's playbook for interfering in U.S. elections, developed machine-learning tools to detect the interference, and tested strategies to counter Russian interference. In February and August 2020, United States Intelligence Community (USIC) experts warned members of Congress that Russia was interfering in the 2020 presidential election in then-President Donald Trump's favor. USIC analysis released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in March 2021 found that proxies of Russian intelligence promoted and laundered misleading or unsubstantiated narratives about Joe Biden "to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration." The New York Times reported in May 2021 that federal investigators in Brooklyn began a criminal investigation late in the Trump administration into possible efforts by several current and former Ukrainian officials to spread unsubstantiated allegations about corruption by Joe Biden, including whether they had used Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani as a channel.
Since 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his allies have promoted several conspiracy theories related to the Trump–Ukraine scandal. One such theory seeks to blame Ukraine, instead of Russia, for interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. Also among the conspiracy theories are accusations against Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, and several elements of the right-wing Russia investigation origins counter-narrative. American intelligence believes that Russia engaged in a years long campaign to frame Ukraine for the 2016 election interference, that the Kremlin is the prime mover behind promotion of the fictitious alternative narratives, and that these are harmful to the United States. FBI director Christopher A. Wray stated to ABC News that "We have no information that indicates that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 presidential election" and that "as far as the [2020] election itself goes, we think Russia represents the most significant threat."
The Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russian interference in the United States presidential election, officially titled Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, is the official report in five volumes documenting the findings and conclusions of the United States Senate Intelligence Committee concerning the Russian attack efforts against election infrastructure, Russia's use of social media to affect the election, the U.S. government's response to Russian activities, review of the Intelligence Community Assessment, and counterintelligence threats and vulnerabilities. The redacted report is 1,313 pages long. It is divided into five volumes.
Peace Data or PeaceData is a fake news website run by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian outlet connected to the country's government, which publishes in English and Arabic.
The Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory is a series of false allegations that Joe Biden, while he was vice president of the United States, improperly withheld a loan guarantee and took a bribe to pressure Ukraine into firing prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to prevent a corruption investigation of Ukrainian gas company Burisma and to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the Burisma board. As part of efforts by Donald Trump and his campaign in the Trump–Ukraine scandal, which led to Trump's first impeachment, these falsehoods were spread in an attempt to damage Joe Biden's reputation and chances during the 2020 presidential campaign, and later in an effort to impeach him.
Russian disinformation campaigns have occurred in many countries. For example, disinformation campaigns led by Yevgeny Prigozhin have been reported in several African countries. Russia, however, denies that it uses disinformation to influence public opinion.
Foreign rivals of the United States, mainly Russia and China, have attempted to weaken American race relations as a geopolitical strategy. This manipulation is primarily done through misinformation posted on social media, targeting mainly African-Americans and Asian-Americans. Russia's social media campaign was thought to have affected the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The practice can be traced back to propaganda efforts of the Soviet Union's Comintern in the 1920s.
Spamouflage, Dragonbridge, Spamouflage Dragon, Storm 1376, or Taizi Flood is an online propaganda and disinformation operation that uses a network of social media accounts to make posts in favor of the Chinese government and harass dissidents and journalists overseas since 2017. Beginning in the early 2020s, Spamouflage accounts also began making posts about American and Taiwanese politics. It is widely believed that the Chinese government, particularly the Ministry of Public Security, is behind the network. Spamouflage has increasingly used generative artificial intelligence for influence operations. The campaign has largely failed to receive views from real users, although it has attracted some organic engagement using new tactics.
The Iranian government has interfered in the 2024 United States elections through social media efforts and hacking operations. Iranian interference has come amidst larger foreign interference in the 2024 United States elections. The efforts were identified as an effort to tip the race against former president Donald Trump through propaganda and disinformation campaigns. However, Iranian efforts have also targeted Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with similar attacks, which The New York Times stated suggested "a wider goal of sowing internal discord and discrediting the democratic system in the United States more broadly in the eyes of the world."
The Russian government has interfered in the 2024 United States elections through disinformation and propaganda campaigns aimed at damaging Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and other Democrats while boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump and other candidates who support isolationism and undercutting support for Ukraine aid and NATO. Russia's efforts represent the most active threat of foreign interference in the 2024 United States elections and follows Russia's previous pattern of spreading disinformation through fake social media accounts and right-wing YouTube channels in order to divide American society and foster anti-Americanism. On September 4, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted members of Tenet Media for having received $9.7 million as part of a covert Russian influence operation to co-opt American right-wing influencers to espouse pro-Russian content and conspiracy theories. Many of the followers of the related influencers were encouraged to steal ballots, intimidate voters, and remove or destroy ballot drop offs in the weeks leading up to the election.
Several nations have interfered in the 2024 United States elections. U.S. intelligence agencies have identified China, Iran, and Russia as the most pressing concerns, with Russia being the most active threat.
