Is it Real? Or Is It Spamouflage?
That meme account you’re following might also be smuggling misinformation
Have you come across a social media account, which appears to primarily post popular memes, TikTok videos, funny cat photos, whatever, but also includes the occasional pointed political post? If so, you may have encountered “spamouflage.”
Now, “spamouflage” may also refer to that trick spammers use “where they replace letters with numbers or symbols in an attempt to circumvent spam filters. You know: “You’ve w0n $1OOO” or something like that. In the online security community, however, “spamouflague” refers to the practice of sprinkling narrow political messaging—including misinformation and disinformation—in with more popular, mainstream content merely intended to be entertaining to draw your attention.
And researchers have discovered that this practice of “spamouflage” is sometimes being conducted at great scales.
For example, in 2019, a team of researchers at the online network analysis firm Grafika released a report on a “cross-platform spam network,” which targeted protests against the Chinese government in Hong Kong. Lead by disinformation expert Ben Nimmo, the team dubbed this effort “Spamouflage Dragon.” In their report, they detailed how this Chinese state-linked operation used…
