Graphika in the News: The #Americans

With just two months to go until the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the world is watching for any signs of election interference. Now, Graphika's latest report is giving readers a closer look at how Chinese state-linked operation Spamouflage has used social media to masquerade as American voters and push divisive narratives.

Graphika's Chief Intelligence Officer Jack Stubbs told the Associated Press that, "one of the world’s largest covert online influence operations — an operation run by Chinese state actors — has become more aggressive in its efforts to infiltrate and to sway U.S. political conversations ahead of the election."

Graphika's report saw the accounts attempt to discredit the candidates from both parties.

In an interview with NPR about The #Americans, Stubbs noted that China is “engaging in these more advanced deceptive behaviors and directly targeting these organic but hyper-sensitive social rifts” with plans to “portray the U.S. as this declining global power with weak political leadership and a failing system of governance."

When it comes to the true nature of Spamouflage and the importance of accurate research to inform the public conversation surrounding it, Stubbs told CyberScoop that “the fear of foreign influence efforts is significant and the threat is real — it’s a legitimate risk... but we need to make sure that those conversations are rooted in what is happening and what we can prove and analyze objectively, and not risk straying into speculation about what could be happening or might be happening.”

The #Americans was also covered by The Wall Street Journal, Axios, Reuters, Scripps News, Newsweek, The Hill, and Politico, among other media outlets.