China is now trying to target Taiwan with disinformation plan
Beijing: China is trying to conduct disinformation campaigns that involve more than 400 fake accounts which aim to target Taiwanese on social media.
China is trying to infiltrate social media, Internet forums and online chat-rooms that are popular among Taiwanese to subvert the public’s trust in the government, destabilize society and meddle in elections, the investigation bureau said as quoted by Taipei Times.
Since it started tracing fake accounts and disinformation to Chinese content farms in April last year, the Information and Communication Security Division investigated 2,773 such cases, the bureau said.
It has forwarded 174 cases to prosecutors, who have listed 234 people as suspects, the bureau added.
An official involved in the investigations told Taipei Times that China had planted 20 accounts on CK101.com, a popular forum among Taiwanese, using mobile phone numbers registered outside Taiwan and e-mail addresses with foreign providers.
“These accounts are specializing in posting fake news and disinformation to undermine the COVID-19 measures implemented by Taiwan’s health authorities, create confusion and circulate politically charged messages to generate disputes and conflicts,” said the official, who declined to be named. “These are clearly products of China’s content farms.”
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