The tool of artificial intelligence is being used by the Chinese Communist Party in its fake news campaign. A network of websites purporting to be legitimate news outlets are used to deliver pro-China coverage that often mirrors the official positions and statements of Beijing … writes Dr Rakesh Kumar Sharma
In a vain attempt to spread its influence globally, the authorities in China are increasingly taking recourse to spreading fake news through its propaganda apparatus.
China is also using the tool of fake news in attempts to influence elections in countries where they have a stake. Taiwan was the target of such fake news during the recent presidential election in the island state.
The U.K. has also been targeted before the elections there, with data from the British Election Commission hacked. Beijing has made consistent attempts to influence the outcome of the ongoing presidential election in the U.S. by spreading confusion through fake news. Beijing uses the tool of fake news also to embarrass globally politicians who speak out against the dismal human rights records of China.
Veteran U. S. diplomat Kurt Campbell experienced in 2022 the venom of such Chinese fake news campaigns when he went to the Solomon Islands to counter the influence of Beijing in the South Pacific country; saw how far China could go to spread its message. Now serving as Deputy Secretary of State in the U. S. administration, Kurt Campbell was in the Solomon Islands when the local media carried a long article about the U. S. running chemical and biological labs in Ukraine; a claim that Washington has called an outright lie. The vast overseas propaganda apparatus of China had vigorously fuelled the false claim. Two years down the line, the claim still finds a place in the online media; an instance of how China labours to reshape global perceptions.
The tool of artificial intelligence is being used by the Chinese Communist Party in its fake news campaign. A network of websites purporting to be legitimate news outlets are used to deliver pro-China coverage that often mirrors the official positions and statements of Beijing. Advisor to the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation Shannon Van Sant has been quoted in an AP report from Washington that she has tracked a network of dozens of sites that poses as news organizations; one of them mimicking The New York Times, using the same font and design and carrying strongly pro-China messages. AI- created photos of journalists have been used in these reports.
President of China Xi Jinping has ordained a systematic build-up of Chinese narratives that would give his country a global voice, says Democrat member of U. S. House of Representatives Gregory Meeks. Media groups at the local level in different countries are creating “international communication centres” in media partnership with Chinese state media agencies like Xinhua and China Central Television to build an overseas presence with websites, news channels and social media accounts.
According to a recent Microsoft report, China-affiliated actors are using social media and AI-generated content in an attempt to influence geopolitics. General Manager of Microsoft Threat Analysis Centre Clint Watts has said fake social media accounts are being used to “sow division and possibly influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.” Chinese operators have used AI-generated content to influence the perception of certain topics. Social media accounts affiliated to China have commented on divisive political topics in the U.S. such as immigration, drugs and race. Some of the contents have tried to give credence to conspiracy theories or portray the U.S. in poor light; like false claims linking the U.S. government to wildfires in Hawaii and a train derailment in Kentucky.
Microsoft has also identified AI-influenced contents and posts to influence the presidential election in Taiwan in January 2024, “amplifying outrage over Japan’s disposal of nuclear waste water.” Efforts had been made to cast doubts on the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency that the plans of Japan to release treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi plant were consistent with safety standards.
The British government, in a Press release on March 25, 2024, said: “The United Kingdom today identified that Chinese state-affiliated organizations and individuals were responsible for two malicious cyber campaigns targeting democratic institutions and parliamentarians.” First, the U.K. Electoral Commission systems in all likelihood were compromised by a Chinese state-affiliated entity between 2021 and 2022. In the assessment of the National Cyber Security Centre of the U.K., it was almost certain that a Chinese hacking group comprising Chinese intelligence officers and hackers, conducted in 2021 conducted reconnaissance against British parliamentarians, most of whom were prominent critics of Chinese subversive activities.
In late July 2024, the intelligence community in the U.S. said in its election security update that influence operations from China were using social media to sow divisions in the United States and to portray democracies as chaotic, according to a report of the Washington-based National Public Radio.
On December 21 last, the authorities in Taiwan arrested an online journalist working for a fringe outlet that had been the first to project that a candidate friendly to Beijing was on track to win the presidential election in Taiwan on January 13 this year. Taiwanese prosecutors investigated the opinion poll under the Anti-Infiltration Act of Taiwan, designed to counter Chinese interference, and found that the findings of the journalist had been faked and orchestrated by officials of the Communist Party of China. The journalist pretended to have interviewed or sampled more than 300 citizens over eight rounds of polling. The so-called phone interviews never took place and popularity poll was found to have been fabricated. The fake opinion poll had sent shockwaves in Taiwan as it had put Houyu-ih from the China-leaning Kuomintang in the lead; ahead of Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party, the current President of Taiwan.
A report by Meta, an American multinational technology conglomerate, has underscored the menace of fake Facebook accounts originating from China spreading fake news about India. The accounts, pretending to be Indians and run by people posing as journalists, lawyers and human rights activists, have been actively involved in spreading misleading information on Indian politics and issues of Indian security to manipulate public opinion. Tibet-focused accounts have accused the Dalai Lama and his followers of corruption.