{"id":15255,"date":"2024-10-23T20:29:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T20:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15255"},"modified":"2024-10-23T21:27:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:27:18","slug":"bots-linked-to-china-target-republican-house-and-senate-candidates-microsoft-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15255","title":{"rendered":"Bots Linked to China Target Republican House and Senate Candidates, Microsoft Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dozens of inauthentic accounts on X linked to China have been assailing Republican members of Congress running for re-election in Alabama, Tennessee and Texas, accusing them of corruption and promoting their opponents, according to a report<\/a> released on Wednesday by Microsoft\u2019s Threat Analysis Center.<\/p>\n

Those targeted include Representatives Barry Moore in Alabama and Michael McCaul in Texas and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. All have been critics of China and its policies, though the posts also criticized Mr. Moore for supporting Israel, frequently using antisemitic language, the report said.<\/p>\n

The accounts are part of a coordinated influence operation known as Spamouflage.<\/p>\n

While Chinese influence operations<\/a> have sought to denigrate the American political process broadly, they have focused less on this year\u2019s presidential race and more on down-ballot races, presumably in hopes of blunting anti-Chinese sentiment in the House and Senate. The accounts also attacked Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who is not up for re-election this year, the report said.<\/p>\n

Mr. McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the Communist Party of China \u201cthe greatest generational challenge we face today,\u201d in a 2020 report. China barred him from visiting the country after a visit to Taiwan last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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One bot said he was \u201cabusing power for personal gain,\u201d accusing him without detailing evidence of insider trading.<\/p>\n

A new ad<\/a> for Ms. Blackburn\u2019s re-election campaign shows her smashing plates decorated with China\u2019s name and flag. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to break a lot more China to save America,\u201d she says in it.<\/p>\n

One account on X flagged by Microsoft suggested she accepted $700,000 in campaign donations from opioid manufacturers, referring to a six-year-old accusation from a liberal political action committee, American Bridge 21st Century. Since early October, the bots have been promoting her opponent, Representative Gloria Johnson, according to Microsoft\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

None of the posts went viral, even though the accounts often shared one another\u2019s content. \u201cWhile not always resulting in high levels of engagement, these efforts demonstrate China\u2019s sustained attempts influence U.S. politics across the board,\u201d Clint Watts, who heads the Threat Analysis Center, wrote in a post accompanying the report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dozens of inauthentic accounts on X linked to China have been assailing Republican members of Congress running for re-election in Alabama, Tennessee and Texas, accusing them of corruption and promoting their opponents, according to a report released on Wednesday by Microsoft\u2019s Threat Analysis Center.Those targeted include Representatives Barry Moore in Alabama and Michael McCaul in Texas and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. All have been critics of China and its policies, though the posts also criticized Mr. Moore for supporting Israel, frequently using antisemitic language, the report said.The accounts are part of a coordinated influence operation known as Spamouflage.While Chinese influence operations have sought to denigrate the American political process broadly, they have focused less on this year\u2019s presidential race and more on down-ballot races, presumably in hopes of blunting anti-Chinese sentiment in the House and Senate. The accounts also attacked Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who is not up for re-election this year, the report said.Mr. McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the Communist Party of China \u201cthe greatest generational challenge we face today,\u201d in a 2020 report. China barred him from visiting the country after a visit to Taiwan last year.One bot said he was \u201cabusing power for personal gain,\u201d accusing him without detailing evidence of insider trading.A new ad for Ms. Blackburn\u2019s re-election campaign shows her smashing plates decorated with China\u2019s name and flag. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to break a lot more China to save America,\u201d she says in it.One account on X flagged by Microsoft suggested she accepted $700,000 in campaign donations from opioid manufacturers, referring to a six-year-old accusation from a liberal political action committee, American Bridge 21st Century. Since early October, the bots have been promoting her opponent, Representative Gloria Johnson, according to Microsoft\u2019s report.None of the posts went viral, even though the accounts often shared one another\u2019s content. \u201cWhile not always resulting in high levels of engagement, these efforts demonstrate China\u2019s sustained attempts influence U.S. politics across the board,\u201d Clint Watts, who heads the Threat Analysis Center, wrote in a post accompanying the report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15257,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15258,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15255\/revisions\/15258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}