Spamouflage trolls pretend to be American patriots on X

Spamouflage, the Beijing-linked trolls known for spreading fake news about American politics, is back with new accounts on X and TikTok that claim to be frustrated US voters in “more aggressive” attempts to influence the upcoming presidential election.

The pro-People’s Republic of China propaganda crew set up at least 15 accounts on X and one on TikTok claiming to be US patriots, according to a new report by social media analytics firm Graphika.

These fake personas include Harlan, an influencer and conservative news account spreading pro-Trump, MAGA narratives across both platforms, and “Abbey,” an American “pure patriotic girl” on TikTok. 

“In some cases, both personas have posted identical or near-identical copies of the same videos within hours of each other,” according to the report [PDF].

While Spamouflage, also tracked as “Dragonbridge,” did attempt to sow doubt in the American political system during the 2022 midterm elections, since mid-2023 the China-linked accounts have expanded their talking points. These now cover a broader range of divisive social issues, including gun control, homelessness, drug abuse, racial inequality, and the Israel-Hamas conflict with the phony accounts on X and TikTok posting content about the hot-button issues in English and Chinese. 

Plus, they’ve gotten better at deepfakes and other AI-generated fake news.

Some of the more recent AI content targeted President Joe Biden, Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump, we’re told. 

The trolls aren’t particularly hard to spot between the images of flags and soldiers in bios posts along with awkwardly-phrased statements signaling disillusionment with American politics. 

These include: “is the present America still our America?” or “is the current president our president?” Another phony account purported to be a US resident in a state that allowed abortion but worried about others in different states “denied their reproductive rights.”

The good news about the fake news, according to Graphika, is that these Chinese accounts are still pretty pathetic. 

“Despite attempts to masquerade as US users and engage with hot-button issues, the accounts failed to garner significant traction in authentic online communities discussing the election,” the authors wrote.

There was one exception, however: A Harlan Report TikTok video mocking Biden that was posted in July and has 1.5 million views to date.  

As the November election approaches, Graphika’s social media analysts expect to see Spamouflage continue amplifying American social divisions “to portray the US as a declining global power with weak leaders and a failing system of governance.”

Plus, they expect that this and other Chinese information operations will continue to improve their generative AI tools to develop more believable fake personas online while also co-opting real social media influencers — and their online voices — to produce better quality content intended to fool a wider audience.

This report follows earlier takedowns of different Spamouflage accounts on OpenAI attempting to influence the elections in May. And last year, Meta and Google shut down tens of thousands of accounts and pages across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other websites owned by the two tech giants. ®