Security News > 2023 > January > Google Takes Down 50,000 Instances of Pro-Chinese DRAGONBRIDGE Influence Operation

Google on Thursday disclosed it took steps to dismantle over 50,000 instances of activity orchestrated by a pro-Chinese influence operation known as DRAGONBRIDGE in 2022.

"Most DRAGONBRIDGE activity is low quality content without a political message, populated across many channels and blogs," the company's Threat Analysis Group said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

In all, 56,771 YouTube channels created by DRAGONBRIDGE were disabled in 2022, with 58% of them having zero subscribers and 42% of the videos posted in those channels having zero views.

"In the rare cases where DRAGONBRIDGE content did receive engagement, it was almost entirely inauthentic, coming from other DRAGONBRIDGE accounts and not from genuine users," TAG said.

The coordinated inauthentic behavior is facilitated by leveraging Google Accounts purchased in bulk from account sellers who create and sell such accounts for profit, in some cases even reusing dormant accounts that were previously used by other actors for mounting financially motivated campaigns.

"Despite their failure to gain traction with an authentic audience, DRAGONBRIDGE generates high volumes of content across multiple platforms, is persistent and continues to experiment in their tactics and techniques," TAG said.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/01/google-takes-down-50000-instances-of.html