On Thursday, Google revealed that it has taken steps to dismantle more than 50,000 instances of activity organized by the pro-China influence operation known as DRAGONBRIDGE in 2022.
“Most of DRAGONBRIDGE’s activity is low-quality content with no political message and is posted on many channels and blogs,” said the company’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) in a report shared with The Hacker News. says. “However, a small fraction of DRAGONBRIDGE accounts have posted about current events with messages pushing pro-China issues.”
DRAGONBRIDGE was first made public by Google-owned Mandiant in July 2022, targeting rare earth mining companies in Australia, Canada, and the United States in a failed attempt to provoke environmental protests against them. pointed out.
Also known as Spamouflage Dragon, the spam-influenced network is known to exist on multiple platforms such as YouTube, Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter, and has a predominantly narrative that is critical of the United States and favorable to China. is spreading.
Some narratives include allegations that the United States interferes in the internal affairs of other countries, while emphasizing themes of political discord, racial inequality, and inflation to deny the country I’m trying to show you in a positive way.
Despite criticism of the US, DRAGONBRIDGE’s pro-China content praises the country’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, denounces pro-democracy protests, and bolsters support for Taiwan-China reunification Features a story.
Google said it has suspended 100,960 accounts on YouTube, Blogger and AdSense as part of its efforts to thwart the attacker’s activities. He further noted that despite the high volume of content production, DRAGONBRIDGE failed to attract an organic audience.
But that hasn’t stopped the group from constantly adjusting its methods by creating animated political cartoons and producing higher-quality content to attract real users, TAG said. Researchers warned.
A total of 56,771 YouTube channels created by DRAGONBRIDGE were deactivated in 2022, 58% of which had zero subscribers and 42% of videos posted to those channels had zero views. Besides, about 95% of Blogger blogs received less than 10 views of his.
“In the rare cases where DRAGONBRIDGE content gained engagement, it was not from genuine users, but from other DRAGONBRIDGE accounts, and was almost entirely inauthentic,” TAG said. Activity was primarily from other DRAGONBRIDGE accounts.”
Systematic fraud is facilitated by leveraging Google accounts purchased in bulk from account sellers who create and sell such accounts for profit. In some cases, they even reuse dormant accounts previously used by other actors to launch financial campaigns.
“Despite failing to reach a genuine audience, DRAGONBRIDGE continues to generate massive amounts of content across multiple platforms, persistence, and experimentation with tactics and technology,” said TAG.
