Google disclosed it had dismantled over 50,000 instances of activity organized by a pro-Chinese influence operation known as DRAGONBRIDGE in 2022.
According to the company’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), most DRAGONBRIDGE activity is low quality content without a political message, populated across many channels and blogs. However, a small fraction of DRAGONBRIDGE accounts also post about current events with messaging that pushes pro-China talking points.
DRAGONBRIDGE was first exposed by Google-owned Mandiant in July 2022. Also known as Spamouflage Dragon, it is known to have a presence across multiple platforms, including YouTube, Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter, primarily disseminating narratives critical of the U.S. and favorable of China.
Last year, the company took down more than 50,000 accounts used by Dragonbridge across its platforms. In total, 100,960 accounts have been shut down since the influence network was first spotted.
Google noted that despite the profuse content production, DRAGONBRIDGE failed to attract an organic audience.
In all, 56,771 YouTube channels created by DRAGONBRIDGE were disabled in 2022, with 58% of them having zero subscribers and 42% of the videos posted in those channels having zero views. Around 95% of the Blogger blogs received 10 or lesser views.
DRAGONBRIDGE is far from the only pro-China information operation to have emerged in recent years.
Image Credits : Metal Tech News
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