On Monday , the U.S. Attorney ’s Office for the Eastern District of New Yorkallegedthat the Chinese administration used all sort of techniques to chevy and spy on Chinese contestant live in the United States . This include a massive bot farm on Twitter , harassing dissidents on Zoom calls , and even physically setting up shop in a defacto “ police station ” on U.S. grease .
Accordingto Department of Justice functionary , China ’s Ministry of Public Security used the national police labor force called the 912 Special Project Working Group as a “ troll farm ” to harry Chinese dissidents . U.S. Attorney Breon Peace say the round farm “ spread[s ] disinformation and propaganda to seed division within the United States . ” Feds alleged these trolls produce “ thousands ” of fake score on sites like Twitter to harass and threaten those critical of the res publica and the ruling Chinese Communist Party .
More than that , the DOJ say that the troll target an on-line platform label “ Company-1 ” to interrupt meetings of pro - democracy activists commiserating about theTiananmen Square massacre . ABC Newsreported ground on anon. sources that the list party was Zoom , and that an insider at Zoom was assisting with these repression campaigns . Prosecutorssaidthe trolling send threats in the Zoom chat , and in another example , the trolls drowned out another meeting of anti - CCP dissenter with “ garish medicine , vulgar screams , and threats . ”
Federal prosecutors alleged people working for Chinese national police worked to set up Twitter bot farms and infiltrate Zoom calls to target Chinese dissidents.Image: Anelo (Shutterstock)
prosecutor claimed they have a policy guide detailing how the task force was suppose to make and wield these social culture medium business relationship . The documents also share how to compose article and videos targeting “ themes ” like therecent anti - CCP protest in Chinafollowingharsh covid lockdowns . Last November , reports remark the increase in spam bot on Twitter and other social sites that tried to block protest word withporn contact that included the names of the cities affect in the protests .
The accusations against Zoom echo previous allegations against the company . Back in 2020 , the DOJ charge a Zoom execXinjiang “ Julien ” Jinofworking with the Beijing government to surveil and censor video recording calls . The allegations were that the Zoom exec partake user data and cut off video birdcall on behalf of the CCP . The video meeting platform antecedently claimed to Gizmodo that no Zoom employee provided the Formosan government with the name or information of user not based in China .
Gizmodo reached out to Zoom for remark , but we did not instantly hear back . Zoom had previously volunteer acorporate apologyfor letting the Formosan government order when it shut out down meeting . The web site claimed it had reinstated the banned drug user ’ accounts and instead expend a geo - freeze feature .
The DOJ lay out even more allegations in a separate but linked compositor’s case that Chinese security officials localize up a defacto “ police force post ” in a characterless berth edifice in Chinatown based in lower Manhattan and used it to spy on Taiwanese protester . prosecutor charged 40 officers of the Formosan national police , but none of those cited by the criminalcomplainthave been arrested as they still live in China .
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