(TibetanReview.net, Nov26’24) –It is not just social media but news websites as well that China or pro-China or China-hired digital PR elements are using to spread Communist Party of China propaganda in cyberspace under the guise of telling authentic news stories. Google’s Threat Intelligence Group has recently blocked a network of China-related firms from its search results for operating fake news services and websites, reported theregister.com Nov 25.
“Collectively these firms bulk-create and operate hundreds of domains that pose as independent news websites from dozens of countries, but are in fact publishing thematically similar, inauthentic content that emphasizes narratives aligned to the political interests of the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” Google has declared.
Google has named the network “Glassbridge” and said it is comprised of entities operating in concert while pretending to be independent.
Google has said that while it could not confirm the leadership of Glassbridge, its assessment is that the four entities – Shanghai Haixun Technology, Times Newswire, Durinbridge, and Shenzhen Bowen Media – were taking direction from a shared customer that was outsourcing the creation and distribution of pro-PRC content.
It has said the content included regurgitated state sponsored media, press releases and other material. When it appeared online, it often did so mixed alongside more innocuous content, as well as conspiracy theories or ad hominem attacks on specific individuals.
Google feels that the ploy of using digital PR firms by the actors behind the campaign gave the operation plausible deniability, which could obscure the true source’s role in the “dissemination of coordinated inauthentic content.”
Shanghai Haixun Technology was stated to be the most prolific of the four entities. It had 600 domains that Google removed from its news search feature, and a number of YouTube channels that were also terminated, the report noted.
The group has been operating for a while. In 2022, 59 domains and 14 subdomains hosted by Shanghai Haixun were identified by Mandiant (a cybersecurity company that provides services and products to help organizations protect themselves from cyber threats) as slinging bogus pro-Beijing content.
Overall, Google has revealed that it had blocked over 1,000 sites from Google News and Google Discover since 2022. The takedowns were stated to be a response to what the search giant deemed deceptive behaviour, and out of editorial transparency.