China's Online Influence Campaign in Latin America


On May 31, three Twitter accounts focused on Latin American news—“Hoy Chile,” “Hoy Costa Rica,” and “Hoy Paraguay”—posted identical stories in Spanish featuring three smiling astronauts. “¡Por primera vez China mandará a un civil al espacio!” the Twitter posts declared: “For the first time, China will send a civilian into space!” Two days later, the same three accounts simultaneously posted a story touting China’s superior 5G technology, followed by another promoting China’s first “near-zero energy building.”To get more china newsonline, you can visit shine news official website.
These posts are part of a small network of pro-Beijing accounts targeting audiences in Latin American countries, according to an investigation by Nisos, a cybersecurity firm based in Virginia. Their activities offer a glimpse into an expanding Chinese influence operation in the region, designed to bolster the country’s status as a top regional ally and trading partner.

The sock puppet accounts, which appear to be run by a common operator promoting strategic news content in Spanish, may be the nascent stages of a larger state-backed influence operation intended to create positive narratives about China to aid their policy and diplomatic efforts, according to a new report shared with TIME by Nisos. They’re set up to circumvent Twitter’s state-media labeling policy, which until recently added a small badge to indicate government-linked accounts, by not linking directly to the source. (Under Elon Musk’s ownership, Twitter has removed the labels from most accounts, including those previously marked “China state-affiliated media.”)

With much of Latin America’s online ecosystem largely ignored by both the U.S. and social media companies, China has had free rein to “experiment with different strategies that can be implemented elsewhere later down the line, especially in the information space,” says Sandra Quincoses, an intelligence analyst at Nisos who authored the report. “They’re playing the long game.”