Chinese online influence operation called for overthrow of Spain’s government, Graphika report says
Posted by IHateTrains123
Chinese online influence operation called for overthrow of Spain’s government, Graphika report says
Posted by IHateTrains123
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>A Chinese social media operation that aims to whip up political anger in the West has called for the overthrow of a foreign government when impersonating protesters criticising flood relief efforts in Spain, online analysis outfit Graphika said.
>New York-based Graphika said an operation dubbed Spamouflage, which it believed was linked to the Chinese state, posed this month as human rights group Safeguard Defenders to spread online calls for the government to be toppled in response to the [catastrophic floods](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spains-deputy-pm-ribera-deflects-blame-over-floods-climate-change-2024-11-20/) in October that killed 224 people.
>”This is the first time we have seen Spamouflage directly calling to overthrow a foreign government,” Graphika said in its latest report.
>Graphika says the Spamouflage campaign has been operating in several countries since 2017, [impersonating U.S. voters](https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-says-china-linked-spamouflage-campaign-targeted-lawmakers-pm-trudeau-2023-10-23/) during last year’s election, while Canada [said last year](https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-says-china-linked-spamouflage-campaign-targeted-lawmakers-pm-trudeau-2023-10-23/) that the operation had targeted members of parliament including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
>Graphika said it detected dozens of accounts across social media platforms masquerading as Safeguard Defenders to seed videos and images criticising the handling of the floods by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority government and by the Valencia regional government.
>[…]
>Spamouflage has repeatedly targeted Safeguard Defenders since the Madrid-based NGO published a report in 2022 accusing China of [establishing secret overseas police stations](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-countries-must-do-more-tackle-secret-china-police-stations-ngo-2022-12-15/) in European Union countries, according to Graphika.
>Safeguard Defenders Campaign Director Laura Harth said the organisation has been tracking an online discrediting campaign by China since it published its report.
>”As a Spanish-based foundation, we are particularly concerned over the new focus on allegations of interference in Spanish politics,” Harth said in an email.
>”If those were to get picked up locally, this might lead to real-life consequences for the organization which, we are sure, the Chinese authorities would love to see shut down.”
>In one video overlaid with the Safeguard Defenders’ logo that was posted on X and has since been taken down, a masked person claiming to be from the organisation says they will “expose” authorities for giving up on ordinary people. The video ends with a call to overthrow the Spanish government.
>Graphika said it had “high confidence” that the accounts it identified were part of a Spamouflage campaign.
!ping Europe&Extremism
Spain? Like, the one in BRICS?
But why though? the current government is not that even anti-china as western govs go
!ping IBERIA
Holy moly the headline gives a completely different vibe than what really happens
As a spaniard, the mismanagement of the floods has been a huge scandal, and toppling the goverment would only give votes to the moderate right and the left from the centre left, hardly anything that anyone should lose any sleep for
there are many many reasons to want to topple the current spanish goverment, and a nation familiar with floods advocating for it when it happens in spain is the same reason for why us spaniards are so discontent with the current goverment aswell
this is as if a chinese influencer calls for toppling the Trump administration in the upcoming midterms for their management of the LA fires or something