Fake pro-China social media accounts have been used to push Asian Americans to participate in anti-racism protests.
Security researchers from Google and cybersecurity firm Mandiant revealed on Wednesday that a network of such accounts were used to mobilize Americans to attend protests in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
In one instance, an account was used to push Asian Americans to attend a 24 April 2021 protest aimed at “fighting back” against the virus lab theory.
John Hultquist, vice president of analysis at Mandiant, told The Wall Street Journal the operation was “almost certainly supported by a government sponsor, either directly through a government agency or a third-party contractor.”
Researchers also believe that the scale of the campaign suggests it had significant backing.
Accounts were found across 30 social media platforms and 40 additional websites such as LiveJournal and Vimeo.
Russian, German, Spanish, Korean and Japanese, in addition to Chinese and English were used in the posts.
In other news, Shang-Chi star Simu Liu has discussed toxic Asian masculinity and how the community should improve.
