Researchers have detected increased use by China of social media platforms to present that country’s view of the coronavirus crisis and to influence western perceptions.
The ad buying and use of pro-Beijing social media accounts, including a series on Facebook and on Twitter, apparently seeks to position China as the good guy in the fight against the pandemic,
According to analysis by digital intelligence consultancy Recorded Future, Chinese-influenced social media accounts published more than 32,000 posts related to COVID-19 on several social media platforms up to March 9.
The research examines Chinese state-run attempts to influence Western public perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The messaging:
- China has successfully managed the outbreak and its response should be the model for containing the spread of the virus in other countries.
- Now that China’s outbreak is over, it is China’s turn to help the world (China as a good global citizen).
- The West is using COVID-19 as an excuse and a tool to contain China’s rise.
- Origins of COVID-19 are unclear and the Chinese government is not at fault.
The research says China’s messaging seeks to shift the blame for the pandemic away from the government, making prominent Xi Jinping as the leader of effective response, and shifting from China as the source of the pandemic to China as a global leader in its response.
“We believe it is important to continue to research Chinese influence operations on Western social media platforms for purposes of fact checking, countering blatantly false or misleading information, and to gain a greater understanding of how the Chinese Communist Party and government react in a public emergency," says Recorded Future.
“Our series of research pieces on this topic, as well as the work of others, have illuminated a general pattern in Chinese leadership crisis messaging on Western social media platforms.
“This pattern indicates that in the early days of a crisis, social media posts from state-run organizations are likely at their most transparent and accurate.
“The utility of social media posts are high at first, as they give early insight into a crisis, but degrade over time as the propaganda machine kicks in to influence the message being sent abroad.
A report in the Wall Street Journal: “The Chinese tweets, researchers say, evoke Russia’s tactics, which involved spreading messages that can incite doubt and stir anger about basic facts and sometimes promote fictitious claims. Russia also leaned heavily on state media to spread its message online.”
According to the Stanford Cyber Policy Centre, there’s been no shortage of conspiracy theories about where the coronavirus came from.
“Although COVID-19’s earliest origins may remain uncertain, the story of one volley in the ongoing US-China blame game shows that misinformation about the disease can be traced to specific speculations, distortions, and amplifications,” write Vanessa Molter and Graham Webster.
“A hostile messaging war between US and Chinese officials seeking to deflect blame for the pandemic’s harms has included the US president labeling the pandemic a ’Chinese virus’ to a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson spreading unfounded speculation that the US military had a hand in introducing the virus to Wuhan.
“That speculation fed off of widely debunked theories that the virus was human-engineered and the fact that US military personnel took part in the Military World Games in Wuhan in October 2019.”
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