Chinese bots targeted Trudeau and others – Canada

Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau, Justin attends Question Period in the House of Commons, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada September 19, 2023Reuters

Canada claims to have discovered a Chinese-related propaganda campaign that has targeted heaps of its officials, including Prime Minister Trudeau, Justin.

According to the foreign ministry, the” spamouflage” campaign targeted American MPs with a barrage of online articles.

It claims that the campaign was launched to quell censure of Beijing.

China has formerly denied any claims that it has meddled in American politics.

According to Global Affairs Canada, a” spamouflage” campaign connected to Beijing was discovered in August by the organization’s Rapid Response Mechanism, which was established to track international state-sponsored propaganda work.

It claimed that a scammer system that” left dozens of feedback” in Canada’s two official languages, English and French, on the social media accounts of several American officials contributed to the plan, which accelerated over the first trip of September.

According to the remarks, a Canadian critic of the Chinese Communist Party had charged different politicians with breaking moral and legal laws.

According to Global Affairs Canada,” The Spamouflage plan also included the use of good” strong fake” videos, which are technologically altered by artificial intelligence, targeting the individual.”

The accusations are the most recent in a string of allegations made by officials and French intelligence services that Beijing interfered with American elections.

A” spamouflage” campaign is one in which propaganda messages are posted across a variety of platforms, including Facebook, X / Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Medium, Reddit, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

According to authorities, those same accounts were also responsible for the false claim that a covert US military” weather weapon” was to blame for Hawaii’s fires in August, which led to the spread of false information about them.

According to authorities, the battle also targeted Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet members and Traditional opposition leader Pierre Polievre in addition to the prime minister.

According to Global Affairs Canada, the posts have been reported to the relevant social media platforms,” resulting in much of the engagement and network being removed.”

The ministry claimed to have also informed the affected officials and provided them with guidance on how to safeguard themselves and record any” suspected foreign interference action.”

According to officials, the app network behind this strategy may be connected to a larger, well-known Spamouflage network that has previously been officially reported on by tech behemoths like Meta and Microsoft.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a Canberra-based non-partisan think tank that assisted Canada in making its own analyses, has also studied this system.

Canada started a international intervention investigation earlier in September to look into any interference with its votes by China, Russia, and other parties.

The Chinese ambassador in Canada has been contacted by the BBC for comment.