China Interference Into the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

Black Boxing with Cardiff University

Researchers at the Crime and Security Research Institute discovered a network of China linked fake accounts. The campaign had the most success through a viral video that was later shared by Eric Trump of ballots being burned on election day which was false in that they were not legitimate ballots. Before the election the campaign had assets with both anti-Trump and anti-Biden content however there was more anti-Biden content.

The team alerted Twitter about the network (then of about 400 accounts) in the lead-up to the U.S. election however they found evidence that the network continued on even after Twitter took down a number of accounts.

The accounts were divided into different cells and the cells did not interact which suggests that this was a sophisticated operation. The campaign sought to avoid Twitter detection, this is evidenced by their avoidance of hashtags. Overall most of the accounts had limited engagement. The campaign also had designations between accounts such that some were authors and some amplified content. The accounts posted during office hours in China.

The campaign targeted the Chinese diaspora although it did have accounts which utilized both English and Chinese. The accounts reacted to the siege of the Capitol on 6 January with English language propaganda videos. The authors believe that they did not uncover the full extent of the campaign.