From the moment Vice President Kamala Harris was endorsed by President Biden, a massive disinformation campaign targeting Chinese American voters spread through social media platforms.
Even though Chinese Americans, like most other Asian American subgroups (Vietnamese being the exception) lean heavily towards Democratic candidates and policies, the disinformation campaign emanating mostly from foreign agents, was successful enough to woo enough Chinese American just voters to the Republican ticket, to dilute the impact of the community's overall political preferences.
“We have seen the potential of disinformation to polarize communities, disrupt the social fabric, and undermine trust in our institutions,” said SIPA Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University
“We saw it during the COVID-19 pandemic, January 6th attack on the US Capitol, and we see it in international conflicts unfolding as we speak.”
Chinese Americans, the Asian subgroup with the most registered voters, were the target of a campaign to cause confusion and mmisdirection and it was barely noticed by English-speaking media because most of it was in Mandarin or Cantonese
A study by Chinese for Affirmative Action found that disinformation and the emergence of artificial intelligence posed a serious threat to American democracy. Tuesday's results of a Trump victory confirms the negative impact the strategy had on Harris' attempts to outreach to Chinese Americans.
In Chinese-language social media spaces, right-wing fake news dominates — deifying Trump, stoking fears of communism, and casting doubt on the integrity of elections. Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), monitored Chinese-language disinformation through our Chinese Digital Engagement program, which the San Francisco-based civil rights organization launched in 2019.
Through PiYaoBa, CAA's Chinese-language fact-checking website, more than 600 pieces of disinformation were found just in the past year, from June 10, 2023 to July 29, 2024, which have collectively amassed 11.6 million views. Out of these, 228 pieces of disinformation with total views of 4.05 million across Chinese-language social media platforms such as WeChat, X, YouTube were directly about the 2024 election.
The
majority of disinformation has been about politics, more specifically, supporting Trump
and Republican policies while attacking Biden and Democratic policies. We are also
closely monitoring disinformation that favors Democratic Party candidates and policies.
“About 80% of the attacks on Harris are essentially personal attacks,” said Jinxia Niu, CAA’s program manager of digital engagement, in an interview with The Guardian, “very misogynistic and insulting, almost like shouting insults in the street.”
One theme that took hold and spread like wildfire was the false narrative that Harris was the "other woman" who stole a husband from his wife in referring to the romantic relationwhip she had with California politician Willie Brown, who had been separated from his wife for over a decade before Brown and Harris had their relationship.
“They (Chinese voters) still believe that a woman’s most painful point is being labeled as a mistress,” Niu told The Guardian. “Their assumption is that women can only gain status through their marriage, as the subordinate lover or wife of a man.”
Other Key Findings from the CAA report:
● Twitter Leads in Spreading Disinformation - WeChat is losing ground as a platform for Chinese-language disinformation. For the first time since we began tracking it, Chinese-language disinformation is spreading mostly via Twitter, far surpassing WeChat, since Elon Musk took over and rebranded it as X. PiYaoBa found that 48% of Chinese-language disinformation is spreading via Twitter versus 25% for WeChat. Still, WeChat and Telegram remain popular channels for circulating election disinformation.
● The Deification of Trump Cements his Outsized Influence - Trump continues to be a major influence with right-wing Chinese American content creators. Following the assassination attempt on Trump, they’ve treated him like a god-like figure, cementing their belief that only he can save America from communism — a disinformation narrative unique to the Chinese-language space.
● Chinese-Language and Cultural Trauma is Being Exploited - Although much of the Chinese-language disinformation translates directly from English-language disinformation, right-wing Chinese American social media influencers translate and amplify disinformation in a way that exploits Chinese-language and cultural trauma.
● A.I. Generated Disinformation Acts as an Excelerator - Artificial Intelligence technology is exacerbating the situation. This is the first time we have seen in-language A.I.-generated disinformation playing a role in shaping elections with unprecedented power.
The source, or sources, of the misinformation likely came from abroad. Besides the People's Republic of China, Russia and Iran have aggressive disinformation campaigns to sow chaos and give the impression of a US in decline in order to affect the West's democratic elections.
Most of the fake news on Chinese-language social media followed certain themes, or narratives. Among them:
● Narrative 1: Trump is the only savior of the U.S. and today’s problems are because he is not in charge.
● Narrative 2: The “extreme left” policies of Biden, Harris, and the Democratic Party are destroying the U.S. and bringing it closer to communism.
● Narrative 3: The Biden administration opened the border to allow undocumented immigrants to vote for Democrats in the 2024 election.
● Narrative 4: Leftists are masterminds behind various world events and natural disasters and are playing a long game to control everything.
● Narrative 5: The 2020 election was stolen from Trump and widespread voter fraud, especially involving noncitizens, may lead to another stolen election in 2024.
The Chinese American community was vulnerable to unmonitored disinformation campaigns., especially when done in launguages or dialects other than English. According to the 2024 Asian American Voter Survey, among 432 registered Chinese American voters, 81% speak languages other than English at home, the highest percentage among all AAPI ethnic groups, Additionally, 17% of Chinese Americans get most of their news from non-English sources, also the highest rate across all ethnicities.The Guardian also squoted Dorothy He, the communications director at the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA).
“The goal of racialized disinformation when it comes to elections is to suppress voter turnout in the fastest-growing electorate in the US or sway them to vote a certain way.”
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