Washington, DC, September 6:
Reported: Experts are warning that Iranian and Chinese players are trying to influence US public opinion using complex social media manipulation strategies as the US presidential election draws near. According to a study by Nikkei Asia, these actors are using AI to create personalized messages that they hope will sway voters.
The website Nio Thinker is a prime example; it produces articles that are critical of Republican nominee Donald Trump and uses language that is indicative of persuasion attempts.
Articles published by Nio Thinker include peculiar wording, such as "raving mad litigosaur" and "opioid-filled elephant," which suggests elaborate attempts at manipulation.
Nio Thinker was exposed in August by a Microsoft study as being part of an influence campaign sponsored by Iran, after initially posing as a liberal US platform.
An article criticizing Trump's Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and taking a pro-Palestinian position on the Israel-Hamas conflict is hosted on the site.
It states, "If the party's presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, does not change her policy on Israel, I will not be casting a ballot for her."
Meta, Facebook's parent corporation, released a study in July that detailed Iranian efforts to influence the US election. Nikkei Asia revealed that accounts pretending to be tech support employees used WhatsApp phishing tactics to acquire information.
Furthermore, Iranian threat actors were using OpenAI's generative AI platform to create social media messages, therefore the US startup that developed ChatGPT has disabled their accounts.
With 39 Russian campaigns, 30 Iranian efforts, and 11 Chinese campaigns recorded by Meta since 2017, the United States has been confronted with a plethora of foreign influence operations.
The 43-year-old Los Angeles resident Ben Affleck, who was impersonating a Trump supporter, had his X (formerly Twitter) account suspended, which is a remarkable instance of possible Chinese influence.
Liberals have turned our nation into a laughing stock, according to the account, which used to have around 8,000 followers. In 2024, save America by voting for Trump! The account was suspended by X because it was determined to be a Chinese-operated "spamouflage" account.
The use of false accounts to manipulate online conversations has allegedly been going on since 2017, with ties to the Chinese government. The 2016 Cambridge Analytica incident, in which a British consulting firm utilized data from 87 million Facebook accounts to influence voter impressions during that election, is an example of an effort at meddling that is similar to this manipulation.
