China steps up disinformation campaign in 2024: NSB report

Taipei, Jan. 3 (CNA) China's spread of disinformation increased 60 percent in 2024, with much of the increase focused on media outlets used predominantly by younger people, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released Friday.

The brief report, titled "China's Disinformation Dissemination Patterns in 2024," said China spread 2.16 million pieces of "controversial information" in 2024, up from 1.33 million pieces in 2023.

The NSB told CNA that it defined the term "controversial information" the same way as it defines disinformation, but it would not reveal its methodology on how the figures were compiled.

Among the prominent themes of the Chinese campaign was spreading skepticism over U.S. support for Taiwan, the military and President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), which attempted to "undermine public confidence in the government and heighten social divisions," the report said.

The biggest outlet through which the disinformation was channeled was Facebook, accounting for just over 900,000 of the 2.16 million pieces of information tallied, according to a bar chart provided in the report.

That total was up 40 percent from 2023, the report said, but the use of other channels with much lower baselines grew much faster, with the volume of disinformation on video channels, forums and X (formerly Twitter) rising 151 percent, 664 percent and 244 percent, respectively.

This indicated that the younger generation was the primary target of the campaigns, the report said.

The use of forums (mostly PTT but also Dcard and Mobile01), was particularly noticeable, making them the second most used channel in 2024 behind Facebook after barely registering in 2023, the report said.

Other platforms identified by the NSB as sources of disinformation were Chinese media, news outlets and Weibo.

A total of 28,216 inauthentic accounts were identified in 2024, up 11,661 from 2023. The primary platform for these was also Facebook, with 21,967 (77.85 percent) accounts, the report said.

The number of inauthentic accounts on TikTok soared 1,614 percent to 4,371, reflecting how changes in social media usage is leading to the evolution of disinformation activities, the report said.

"Inauthentic accounts" are often characterized by "hidden basic information, lack of personal life details, unusual patterns in friend connections and interaction with other accounts, or alignment with China's official propaganda," according to the report.

Some of the methods most often used to disseminate disinformation included using inauthentic accounts to flood comment sections and spread manipulated videos or memes on social media, the report said.

Other tactics involved hacking Taiwanese accounts to impersonate Taiwanese citizens and military personnel, generating disinformation using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to mass-produce fake content, or using deepfake technology to fabricate video clips of Taiwanese political figures' speeches.

Fake "multilingual" websites have also been set up to "guide international public opinion in favor of China and against Taiwan," including the Czech "Bohemia Daily" and Spanish "Güell Herald," the report said.