Chinese Websites Under The Guise Of 'Local News Outlets' Pushes Pro-Beijing Content: Report (image@freepik)
Digital Watchdog Citizen Lab reported that more than 100 websites which are disguised as local news outlets in Europe, Asia and Latin America are pushing pro-China content in a widespread influence campaign which is linked to a Beijing public relation firm.
Spread over 30 countries, the propaganda material is interspersed with news from local news outlets and Chinese state media, as per a research report by the Toronto-based group. In the report, researcher Alberto Fittarelli said that, “While the campaign”s websites enjoyed negligible exposure to date, there is a heightened risk of inadvertent amplification by the local media and target audiences, as a result of the quick multiplication of these websites and their adaptiveness to local languages and content”.
It is said that the sites’ content sways between conspiracy theories, which is most often about the United States or its allies, such as about America scientists for “leaking” Covid -19, or articles attacking Beijing’s critics.
It is usually rare for the researchers to link such operations to specific entities. The Toronto based research group said that the campaign began in mid-2020, and traced the network to public relations firm Shenzhen Haimaiyunxiang Media Co.,Ltd, which also known as Haimai.
Reuters said that company did not respond to the news agency’s request for comment and phone number listed on an archived version of its website was not reachable.
Citizen Lab said that one of the websites in the campaign was Roma Journal, which look like a local Italian news outlet in every way, as it release headlines that discuss the Italian Priem Minister’s political prospects, a hot air balloon festival in a northern province and a book launch. But the “press releases” button at the corner of the website’s homepage will lead to a range of Chinese state media articles on topics such as China’s contribution to the global economic recovery and its pace towards technological innovation.
Most of the content on the websites were sourced from a press releases service called Times Newswire, said the research group. Analyst at cybersecurity firm Mandiant last year found out that Times Newswire is the centre of a separate Chinese influence operation that targeted the US audiences.
The presence of Chinese influence operations has increased and expanded beyond Asia, as said by social media giant Meta in November last year. Meta called the new findings as “the most notable change in the threat landscape” since 2020.
Citizen Lab went deeper into the research after a series of such websites started to pop up in South Korea and Italy. According to South Korea’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is also part of country’s national intelligence agency, exposed 18 such websites in November last year.
