Analysis shows Russian and Chinese-backed efforts to sow division after Trump indictment

 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/analysis-shows-russian-and-chinese-backed-efforts-to-sow-division-after-trump-indictment

 

 Apr 12, 2023 6:25 PM EDT

 

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Laura Barron-Lopez:

New research shared first with "NewsHour" shows a covert effort by Russian- and Chinese-backed actors to interfere with American news and opinions about Trump's arrest.

The analysis comes from the global security and intelligence firm Soufan Center and the data science firm Limbik. Here is what they learned.

As news of the indictment broke and Trump was arraigned, the volume of online posts about the former president spiked, going from the typical 26,000 posts every day to more than 448,000. Helping drive that engagement were automated fake accounts known as bots.

These accounts are closely linked to the Russian and Chinese governments, operating with the tacit approval of the state. They share Russian and Chinese state media articles across multiple platforms or retweet them. And, on Twitter, they amplified support for Trump during the arraignment.

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 Millions of people across the world post on social media about news every day all the time. Why should people be alarmed about these findings?

Colin Clarke, Senior Research Fellow, The Soufan Center:

Well, I think there's a couple of reasons. And I will give you two in particular.

One is the intent behind the actors. These are Russian- and Chinese-linked actors that are seeking to divide the United States. They want to weaken the U.S. And they do that by driving debate on divisive topics. Also, the political environment that we're currently in, the current climate is highly partisan and polarized. And so it's tailor-made for these types of interventions.

The second is that they're pushing their own narratives. They're attempting to achieve their own objectives, and doing so by spreading false information that's now — then gets picked up by American citizens and passed along.

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Laura Barron-Lopez:

And, Zach, we saw Russia, as I just said, do this in 2016. Specifically, Senate Intelligence found that — in 2016, that Russia targeted African Americans on social media to create racial divisions.

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