A plot to influence US midterm elections favors China

• An influence campaign is known as DRAGONBRIDGE.
• It aims to sow discord between the US and its allies and within the political system.
• The group spreads an English-language movie suggesting that voting is not the solution to America’s woes.

According to cybersecurity researchers, a pro-China online influence operation aims to undermine American democracy and dissuade people from voting in the 2018 midterm elections.

The influence campaign, known as DRAGONBRIDGE, tries to “sow discord both between the US and its allies and within the US political system itself,” including by questioning the value of voting, according to a study released on Wednesday by US cybersecurity firm Mandiant.

According to the report, the group has, among other things, spread an English-language movie suggesting that voting is not “the solution to America’s woes,” US legislators are unproductive, and the legislative process has no appreciable impact on Americans’ lives.

The influence operation, which makes use of fake social media accounts as well as stolen and made-up news articles, has also claimed that the US is to blame for the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions and has portrayed a Chinese hacking group as being supported by the US government, according to the Virginia-based cybersecurity firm.

The Virginia-based cybersecurity firm added that “DRAGONBRIDGE released content suggesting that political infighting, partisanship, polarization, and division had become basic components of American democracy.”

The campaign also cited frequent references to “civil war” on social media and instances of political violence, such as altercations between supporters of competing parties and acts against the FBI, as indicators of the decline and eventual collapse of the democratic system.

Such propaganda is consistent with DRAGONBRIDGE’s prior criticisms of the US and efforts to promote conflict and dissatisfaction within US society, but it appears to be more aggressive in nature.

Mandiant claimed it had “high confidence” that the campaign was being run in “favor of the political interests of the People’s Republic of China,” although without putting a specific nation’s name to it.

The effect of the campaign has been “minimal,” according to Mandiant, which Google acquired in a $5.4 billion transaction last month, despite the fact that it continues to expend “substantial resources to pursue and sustain many operations concurrently.”

The report comes after Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, revealed last month that it had shut down two influence operations with bases in China and Russia that sought to sway public opinion regarding the US elections and the conflict in Ukraine.

A pro-US covert influence campaign intended at swaying public opinion in Central Asia and the Middle East, according to internet researchers at Stanford University, involved a number of profiles that were banned from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in August.

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