조작질 - 실화인가? (BBC)

*주요내용

A sprawling network of more than 350 fake social media profiles is pushing pro-China narratives and attempting to discredit those seen as opponents of China's government, according to a new study. There is no concrete evidence that the network is linked to the Chinese government, but according to the CIR, a non-profit group that works to counter disinformation, it resembles pro-China networks previously taken down by Twitter and Facebook. Much of the content shared by the network focuses on the US, and in particular on divisive issues like gun laws and race politics."The network put out a steady mix of anti US content, for example cheering US 'defeat' ahead of its withdrawal from Afghanistan and painting the US as a poor ally whose aid to India was inadequate during some of its worst months battling Covid."

 

뉴스터디에 따르면, 350개의 가짜 소셜미디어 계정의 방대한 네트워크가 친중국적인 네러티브를 만들어내고 있으며, 반중성향의 계정을 불신하게 만드는 작업을 하고 있다. 이는 중국정부와 연계되어 있다는 구체적인 증거는 없으나 CIR(가짜정보를 추방하는 비영리단체)에 따르면 이는 트위터와 페이스북에서 삭제당한 친중국정부 네트워크와 비슷한 것으로 보고 있다. 미국에 많이 이슈가 치중되어 있는데, 총기규제나 인종정책등 미국 내 분열을 일으키는 주제들과 관련된 것이다. 해당 네트워크는 반미국적 컨텐츠들을 지속적으로 게시하고 있는데, 한 예로 아프가니스탄에서 철군하는 미국에 대해 패배한 것으로 보며 환호하는 것이라든지, 미국을 허약한 동맹국으로 그리면서 코로나사태로 지난 몇 달간 고군분투했던 인도에 대한 지원이 부적합했다고 말한 것들이다. 

 

*단어표현

A sprawling network of 방대한 네트워크

astroturfing 방대하게 조작된 시민운동

 

*짧평

중국정부에 대한 비판의 수위는 서구권 언론의 경우 그 수위가 높아지고 그 빈도도 잦아 지는 편이다. BBC의 경우 일대일로 프로젝트의 초기때 부터도 아프리카에 대한 중국의 영향력이 커지는 부분과 그 곳의 자원을 대량으로 빼가는 부분에 대해 부정적으로 보기는 했었다. (드러내놓고 말은 않지만, 많은 영국인들은 아프리카의 영향력을 중국에게 완전히 빼앗겨버린 것에 대한 회한의 감정도 못내 가지고 있을 것이다) 트럼프가 촉발한 중국과의 무역전쟁을 그 시작점으로 하여, 코로나 사태로 인해 전지구촌에 불만이 고조되고 있는 상황에서, 서구권을 중심으로 반중국적(반증국공산당정부)인 정서가 날로 커지고 있다. 서구권의 정치인과 주요언론은 중국에 대해 주로 부정적인 언급과 기사를 만들어 내서 중국에 대한 국민들의 정서를 결집시키고 있다는 느낌이 들기도 한다. 중국의 사이버상의 테러도 입방아에 가끔 올랐었는데, 오늘의 기사는 BBC의 톱기사로 중국의 가짜 계정을 통한 여론조작을 다루었다. 소셜미디어와 온라인 매체를 통해 얻는 정보의 양이 압도적으로 놓아진 현재의 상황에서 중국뿐 아니라 모든 나라에서 비중있게 볼 수 밖에 없는 영역이다. 미국이든 영국이든 중국이든, 각국의 정보기관들에서 자국에 유리한 상황을 만들기 위해 뭔가는 다 하고 있을텐데, 문제는 중국이 뭘하는 지 대부분의 서구권 정치인과 언론인들이 눈에 불을켜고 있으니, 뭐라도 보이는 것이고, 이슈화 시키고 계속된 중국에 낙인찍기를 이어가는 것이다. 또 중국정부는 반복적으로 이런 일을 하며 적발이 계속되는 과정에서 그 후진 이미지를 서구권등 선진국 자유진영에서는 시진핑 정권이 시작한 독고다이 굴기를 표방하기 이전으로  돌려 놓기가 거의 불가능할 것으로 보인다. 한편, 중국을 악마화하는 것과는 다른 측면에서 거대정부, 소수의 빅브라더 권력자들에 의해 세상이 쉽게 조작되는 작금의 상황은 전혀 유쾌하지 않은 일이며, 세상이 디스토피아로 가고 있다는 명백한 증거 중 하나라고 할 것이다.  

How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda

By Flora Carmichael
BBC News

Published6 hours ago

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A sprawling network of more than 350 fake social media profiles is pushing pro-China narratives and attempting to discredit those seen as opponents of China's government, according to a new study.

The aim is to delegitimise the West and boost China's influence and image overseas, the report by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) suggests.

The study, shared with the BBC, found that the network of fake profiles circulated garish cartoons depicting, among others, exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui, an outspoken critic of China.

Other controversial figures featured in the cartoons included "whistleblower" scientist Li-Meng Yan, and Steve Bannon, former political strategist for Donald Trump.

Each of these individuals has themselves been accused of spreading disinformation, including false information about Covid-19.

image captionThe cartoons shared seek to ridicule (left-right) Bannon, Li-Meng Yan and Guo Wengui

Some of the accounts - spread across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube - use fake AI-generated profile pictures, while others appear to have been hijacked after previously posting in other languages.

There is no concrete evidence that the network is linked to the Chinese government, but according to the CIR, a non-profit group which works to counter disinformation, it resembles pro-China networks previously taken down by Twitter and Facebook.

These networks amplified pro-China narratives similar to those promoted by Chinese state representatives and state media.

Much of the content shared by the network focuses on the US, and in particular on divisive issues like gun laws and race politics.

One of the narratives pushed by the network paints the US as having a poor human rights record. Posts from the fake accounts cite the murder of George Floyd among examples, as well as discrimination against Asians.

image captionThis account has since been suspended by Twitter for violating its rules

Some accounts repeatedly deny human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, where experts say China has detained at least a million Muslims against their will, calling the allegations "lies fabricated by the United States and the West".

"The aim of the network appears to be to delegitimise the West by amplifying pro-Chinese narratives," said Benjamin Strick, the author of the CIR report.

There are strong similarities between this network and the so-called "Spamouflage Dragon" propaganda network identified by social analytics firm Graphika.

Commenting on the new study Ira Hubert, a senior investigative analyst at Graphika, said: "The report shows that on US platforms, there was no 'honeymoon' in the first months of the Biden administration.

"The network put out a steady mix of anti-US content, for example cheering US 'defeat' ahead of its withdrawal from Afghanistan and painting the US as a poor ally whose aid to India was inadequate during some of its worst months battling Covid."

How was the network uncovered?

The CIR mapped hashtags favoured by previously identified networks, unearthing more accounts that showed signs of being part of an influence operation.

Tell-tale signs included high levels of activity pushing propaganda narratives and repeated use of the same hashtags. Newly created accounts, accounts with usernames that appeared to be randomly generated, and accounts with very few followers also raised red flags.

• The foreigners in China's disinformation drive
• Inside the pro-China network targeting the US, Hong Kong and an exiled tycoon
• Going undercover to infiltrate Chinese-American far-right networks

Some profiles were created to post original content, while others only shared, liked and commented on those original posts, to help them reach a wider audience.

This kind of activity is often referred to as "astroturfing" because it is designed to create the appearance of a grass-roots campaign.

IMAGE SOURCEBENJAMIN STRICK / CIR

image captionThe study visualises how different accounts amplify each other - each small node represents a Twitter account

Fake people

Many of the fake profiles used AI generated photos - a relatively new phenomenon that allows computers to create realistic looking images of people who don't exist. Unlike stolen profile images of real people, the AI generated images, which are created by a type of machine learning framework called StyleGAN, cannot be traced using a reverse image search.

The use of fake profile pictures in disinformation campaigns is becoming more common as users and platforms become more wary of suspicious accounts.

The CIR used various techniques to identify fake profile pictures in the network. The synthetic images always put the eyes in the same location, so lining them all up can help identify a collection of fake profile pictures.

Normally, a random collection of profile pictures would display much more variety in the cropping and the alignment of the eyes.

IMAGE SOURCEBENJAMIN STRICK / CIR

image captionThe network uses images of people who do not exist

Other signs include blurred edges around the hair, teeth at strange angles, and blurred objects around the face.

Many of the Facebook accounts believed to be part of the network appeared to have Turkish names. These accounts may once have belonged to real people but were later hijacked or sold and given new profile pictures.

Hijacked accounts also spread the network's pro-China narratives on YouTube. Accounts that had previously posted in English or German and then lain dormant for years suddenly started posting Chinese language content from official Chinese state broadcasters.

IMAGE SOURCEBENJAMIN STRICK / CIR

image captionThe report found spam Tweets using the same text, tags and images all uploaded on the same day

The CIR shared its research with the social media platforms involved.

Facebook has removed the accounts on its platform highlighted in the study.

A Facebook spokesman said: "In September 2019, we removed a network of spam activity that posted lifestyle and political clickbait, primarily in Chinese. This network had almost no engagement on our platform, and we continue to work with researchers and our industry peers to detect and block their attempts to come back, like those accounts mentioned in this report."

YouTube also terminated accounts in the network for violating YouTube's community guidelines.

Twitter said it had also now removed almost all of the accounts identified by CIR, as well as a number of others engaged in similar behaviour. It said its investigations are still ongoing.

"When we identify information operation campaigns that we can reliably attribute to state-linked activity - either domestic or foreign-led - we disclose them to our public archive."

 

*원문

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58062630