By Juan Manuel Escorcia and AFP | 2023-09-08

BOGOTA -- Argentina, Mexico, Panama and Peru are the countries most vulnerable to propaganda pushed in Latin America through a Chinese state apparatus that devotes millions to covertly boosting Bejing's influence and criticizing the West.

Facebook parent Meta purged at the end of August thousands of social media accounts that were part of a widespread online Chinese spam operation.

The campaign, which became known as "Spamouflage," was active across more than 50 platforms and forums including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter, according to a Meta threat report.

"We assess that it's the largest, though unsuccessful, and most prolific covert influence operation that we know of in the world today," said Meta Global Threat Intelligence Lead Ben Nimmo.

"And we've been able to link Spamouflage to individuals associated with Chinese law enforcement."

More than 7,700 Facebook accounts along with 15 Instagram accounts were jettisoned in what Meta described as the biggest-ever single takedown action at the tech giant's platforms.

Clusters of fake accounts were run from various parts of China, with the cadence of activity strongly suggesting groups working from an office with daily job schedules, according to Meta.

Propaganda and disinformation

An article published in Time magazine on July 11 revealed that suspected fake news agencies in Chile, Costa Rica and Paraguay published at least three identical pro-China news items on their Twitter accounts in May with very little time difference between the posts.

These accounts were later found to be part of a small pro-Beijing network targeting audiences in Latin American countries. The network was using Twitter accounts to spread pro-China propaganda and disinformation.

The revelation that these accounts were part of a pro-Beijing network demonstrates that China is using social media as an alternative to the traditional methods of persuasion that it has used for several years, such as cultivating relationships with journalists and media executives.

The Time magazine article, supported by an investigation by Nisos, a cybersecurity firm based in Virginia, suggests that pro-China propaganda on social networks in Latin America is part of "an expanding Chinese influence operation in the region, designed to bolster the country's status as a top regional ally and trading partner."

Nisos found that the Twitter accounts in question appeared to be run by a single operator who promoted strategic news content in Spanish. Nisos also claimed that the accounts were funded by Beijing to create positive narratives about China and assist in its political and diplomatic efforts.

The accounts, which are set up to circumvent the former Twitter's state-media labeling policy, are "tied to China News Service, the country's second-largest state-owned news agency, which operates several international bureaus," according to Time.

"The accounts appear to be engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior, posting identical or similar content at regular intervals," the report said. "Despite low numbers of followers, the accounts are followed and occasionally retweeted by top Chinese diplomats and embassies as well as Latin American accounts sympathetic to Beijing's interests in the region."

Xi's massive influence campaign

The reports by Meta and Nisos are consistent with the findings of a study published by Freedom House in September 2022.

"The Chinese government, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, is accelerating a massive campaign to influence media outlets and news consumers around the world," the report said.

Freedom House examined Beijing's influence in 30 countries whose press is classified as "free" or "partially free" between 2019 and 2021, and warned that the Chinese government uses "tools of traditional public diplomacy many others are covert, coercive and potentially corrupt."

"A growing number of countries have demonstrated considerable resistance in recent years, but Beijing's tactics are simultaneously becoming more sophisticated, more aggressive, and harder to detect," according to the report.

Freedom House revealed that Argentina, Mexico, Panama and Peru are the countries most vulnerable to Chinese propaganda, while Brazil, Chile and Colombia are the most resistant.

In the seven Latin American countries that were evaluated in the report, the offensive included the spread of Chinese propaganda through agreements between Chinese state media and local media, generally government-owned.

According to the report, China's "media influence efforts" in Argentina and Peru are "high," while in Mexico and Panama they are "notable."

At the same time, the "local resilience and response" -- namely, citizens' ability to resist the propaganda -- in these countries are rated as "notable," with the exception of Panama, where the response to the influx of Chinese propaganda is "low."

Shaping public opinion

China's influence efforts in Panama have been "constant," particularly after Panama's switch in diplomatic relations in 2017 from Taiwan to China, Ellie Young, a research analyst for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, said in an article published on the Central American website Expediente Público last September 22.

"The content produced by the Chinese state was widely available in the local media, and Chinese diplomats have been very active on social media," Young added about the situation in Panama.

A significant finding of the report is that, while China's media influence in Chile is "high" and in Brazil "notable," both countries have a "high" level of local resilience and response. The influx of Chinese propaganda in Colombia is "low," while citizens' response is "notable."

The Chinese government and its representatives have shown that they "have no qualms about deploying economic pressure to neutralize and suppress unfavorable coverage" and "implicitly or explicitly reduce critical debate and reporting -- not only on China's domestic or geopolitical concerns but also on its bilateral engagement with other countries," Freedom House said.

Expediente Público reports that Chinese state media, including China Global Television Network (CGTN), China Radio International (CRI), the magazine China Hoy, the newspaper China Daily and the news agency Xinhua, have renewed cooperation agreements with public media in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

These agreements allow Chinese state media to place their content on local media platforms, giving them a wider reach and making it more difficult for audiences to distinguish between Chinese propaganda and independent news.

"Even private media reproduce that content," the report said.

Copying Russia

Meta said in its report that some tactics used in China were similar to those of a Russian online deception network exposed in 2019, which suggested the operations might be learning from one another, according to Nimmo.

The core of the operation was to mimic websites of global mainstream news outlets and post bogus stories about Russia's war on Ukraine, then try to spread them online, said Meta head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher.

Sputnik and RT have similar strategies in Latin America. They have small social media followings, but their tweets are often retweeted by Russian allies and officials close to Russia.

Entorno has obtained testimonies from Sputnik workers and former employees who say that the Russian state-owned media outlet has forged alliances with local media outlets in Latin America in a variety of ways.

These alliances range from "offering Sputnik's news service for free, falsely comparing it to the services of Reuters, AP and AFP, to inviting local journalists to visit Sputnik's headquarters in Moscow and write favorably about their experience."

China also invites dozens of journalists to Beijing every year for "update" courses that are actually propaganda efforts.

These courses are designed to influence the way journalists report on China, and they often include visits to carefully curated government facilities and meetings with hand-picked officials.

The Chinese government has been accused multiple times of using these courses to silence reporting critical of China.