“Spamouflage”, pro-CCP network, targets West with AI images on Israel-Hamas conflict and shifts to US elections

A recent ISD investigation revealed that a pro-CCP network known as ‘Spamouflage’ is utilising online influence campaigns, including AI-generated images, to deepen wedges within Western society and promote anti-American sentiment abroad. The network had recently incorporated the Israel-Hamas conflict into its content– in a similar fashion to the Russia-Ukraine war before– portraying US president Biden through AI images as ‘war-obsessed’, spending tax payer money on funding other countries. However, the influence campaign is now shifting content production toward the US’s presidential elections in 2024. Through the use of real images, videos, news articles and AI-generated images, the network is creating propaganda targeting US and international audiences through fake accounts on Western social media platforms (mostly on X, but also on Facebook and YouTube).

“The campaign’s tactics are very consistent with its previous activity. It is continuing to use a very mixed set of accounts created at different times, many of which appear to be repurposed commercial bot accounts or potentially hijacked accounts,” writes report author Elise Thomas in the Dispatch.

Our findings on the network are featured by VICE.

The full Dispatch is available on our website.