At least 72 pro-China websites full of fake news uncovered

An information campaign created by a Chinese marketing company uses a network of at least 72 fake news websites and a series of fake social networks to disseminate content aligned with the political interests of the Chinese government.

Mandiant is the cybersecurity company behind the research. And while there is no clear resolution as to who would have organized the campaign, the report does reveal that the websites were hosted on the internet infrastructure of the Chinese marketing company, Shanghai Haixun Technology.

Neither a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington nor Shanghai Haixun Technology responded to requests for comment regarding the issue when asked by Mandiant.

Its purpose: to support the Chinese regime

According to one of Shanghai Haixun 's websites , the company offers customers in China the opportunity to publish their opinions on news sites in more than 40 languages and from 140 countries. The websites, according to the report, present themselves as independent media from different parts of the world and publish content trying to improve the international image of the company. of the Chinese government.

The news pages cover topics from the renowned Xinjiang, home to people of one of the ethnic groups most repressed by the Chinese regime , and even take the opportunity to attack opponents who have been critical of Xi Jinping's policies. According to NBC News, which has viewed the English-language websites, his articles frequently criticized the United States and the West.

Mandiant says the websites have several similarities. Those presented as U.S. media are built with a Chinese HTML template, and many of the sites link directly to other sites on the same network. In addition, identical political articles are often published on multiple websites, including opinions copied from other Chinese state-controlled media sources.

Another fake news campaign

Mandiant's report adds to a large list of disinformationoperations attributed to China, many of which have not gained traction. Dakota Cary, a China analyst with Krebs-Stamos Group, a cybersecurity firm. He told NBC News that these news sites appeared to be a very bad attempt by a pro-China group to influence the Western conversation.

"The campaign observed by Mandiant is another example of how China cannot influence cultural narratives with inauthentic narratives and forged documents."

Also, an unidentified Twitter spokesperson told NBC News that they had suspended several accounts related to the campaign, but declined to share details.