How China, Iran and Russia Target the US Population with COVID Disinformation
The COVID pandemic has affected millions across the globe, especially in the United States. This has not stopped countries such as China, Iran and Russia from exploiting this tragedy through social media disinformation to advance their strategic objectives. For more details on how these actors are targeting the US Population, read the complete report below:
Executive Summary
Threat actors such as China, Iran, and Russia continue to exploit social media in conjunction with traditional state-controlled media, injecting disinformation into the US population to shift the COVID narrative and advance their objectives. Their objectives include weakening confidence in the United States, diverting attention from their own COVID responses, and advancing non-COVID-related subjects such as the lifting of sanctions. Although messaging, objectives, and actions differ among these three primary threat actors, understanding their actions and differing objectives will allow for more focused countermeasures to be implemented.
Threat Actors’ Actions
● China
○ On June 12, 2020, Twitter disclosed an identified Chinese network of more than 170,000 accounts. These accounts pushed four main narratives, one of which sought to shift COVID responsibility away from the Chinese Government.
○ Circa March 2020, China perpetuated a narrative that suggested that the US Army was responsible for the introduction of the virus in Wuhan province, despite no evidence.
○ Since early 2020, Chinese diplomats have used social media platforms popular in the West in order to publicize narratives around COVID. This indicates that the intended audience for this messaging was the international community. This also continued a general uptick in social media use by Chinese diplomats starting in April 2019.
○ Starting March 2020, the Chinese Government has been associated with text messaging campaigns and social media posts related to divisive issues among Americans. Intelligence agencies assessed that Chinese operatives helped push the messages across platforms to create panic and sow distrust in the US Government.
● Iran
○ Starting in late-February 2020 and increasing into April 2020, Iran spread the narrative that US-imposed sanctions were crippling the country’s ability to combat the virus effectively. It promoted the lifting or easing of US sanctions as the primary message targeting the US population.
○ Iranian disinformation and propaganda related to the illness has been largely targeted at a domestic and regional audience, possibly due to concerns that its failure to control the virus will exacerbate social unrest and discontent.
● Russia
○ Between January 22 and mid-March 2020, the European Union’s External Action Service (EEAS) recorded nearly 80 cases of disinformation linked to pro-Kremlin media regarding the COVID outbreak, designed to “exacerbate confusion, panic, and fear.”
■ Further, the EEAS found that pro-Kremlin media outlets were “not authoring most of the misinformation” but were instead “amplifying theories that originate elsewhere.” The messaging that pro-Kremlin media pushed supported a narrative that the virus was created by humans and weaponized by Western countries.
○ Russian COVID disinformation efforts fomented political division in the United States. According to research by the Washington Post, when targeting right-wing Americans, the actors criticized the response from liberals, suggested the virus was used as an excuse to take away freedoms, and blamed China. When messaging to left-wing Americans, they suggested the Trump administration’s response was immoral and inadequate and blamed President Trump.
The spreading of false narratives around COVID continues a pattern of action by threat actors to exploit current events to advance their own varied objectives. China has sought to maintain its international reputation and project responsibility for the pandemic onto the United States. China has been more willing to employ delivery mechanisms that are directly attributed to the Chinese Government. Iran has primarily attempted to use the situation as leverage within the international community to advance sanctions relief. Russia has sought to discredit the US Government and incite greater levels of fear among its adversaries. While the techniques employed may be similar, they have been driven by differing motives and should be approached from different analytical perspectives when countering disinformation.
This product was created by a team of graduate students from American University’s School of International Service. The work herein reflects the team’s research, analysis, and viewpoints.
