China is cited by Google and X executives as the leading source of disinformation

In their testimonies to Canada’s House of Commons ethics committee on October 24, senior executives from Google and X pointed to China as the leading source of foreign interference and disinformation campaigns. Conservative MP Michael Cooper asked X’s representative which foreign state was most active in spreading disinformation within Canada on their platform.

Wifredo Fernández, X’s head of government affairs for the U.S. and Canada, responded that China’s "spamouflage" campaign had been the most prevalent in the past year. This campaign, linked to China, uses networks of new or compromised social media accounts to amplify propaganda.

In October 2023, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) noted that dozens of Canadian politicians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, were targeted by spamouflage. GAC reported that thousands of comments in English and French were posted on Facebook and X, detected by its Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM), a tool that Canada and its G7 allies use to track foreign disinformation.

Fernández testified that X removed approximately 60,000 accounts associated with China’s spamouflage, including 9,500 flagged by the RRM.

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, also eliminated “thousands of accounts” tied to spamouflage, according to Lindsay Hundley, Meta’s global threat intelligence lead. She reported that Meta identified and connected clusters of activity to individuals linked to Chinese law enforcement. These accounts operated across numerous platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and TikTok.

Hundley noted that although Beijing’s spamouflage campaign did not gain significant engagement among genuine users on Meta’s platforms, the campaign is global, targeting audiences in various languages. She explained that Chinese operations have expanded their strategies, targeting critics, using AI-generated news presenters, and attempting to make fake news outlets appear more credible.

Hundley also mentioned that, along with China, Meta had recently dismantled nearly 40 operations from Russia, including four new ones in the past quarter. According to her testimony, Russia, Iran, and China are the primary sources of foreign interference networks worldwide.