🇺🇸🇨🇳 On #ElectionDay, foreign influence remains a critical concern. Kenton Thibaut - @kentonthibaut.bksy.social reveals #China’s interference tactics aimed at shaping voter perceptions with targeted messaging & proxy channels. Discover the 5 trends driving China's strategy: bit.ly/3AAvjN6

Very proud of the whole DFRLab - @dfrlab.bsky.social team today. We have identified a pattern of activity almost identical to Russia-attributed Operation Overload, denigrating U.S. election security and using China-linked amplification network on X to do it.

☎️ What's going on with Salt Typhoon, who's involved, and why should you care? 🎯 CSI experts weigh in with 7️⃣ questions & answers on the implications of the Salt Typhoon campaign based on what we know so far. 🔗 dfrlab.org/2024/12/19/the…

Our takeaways? We should have known better, and no one should be surprised the telco sector was a priority target 📑 Read the full CSI Team responses from Trey Herr, Nikita Shah, Emma Schroeder, Stew Scott, Nitansha Bansal, Sara Ann Brackett, Kenton Thibaut - @kentonthibaut.bksy.social, & Marc Rogers for more

By retrenching on its content policies, Meta is reneging on previous statements that it wanted to create a safe and open space for people on its platforms...the pullback...will inevitably be felt offline. Mark Scott on Meta's decision to axe fact-checking: tinyurl.com/3v9vrkc8

In preparation for the impending ban, American TikTok users are flocking to Chinese social media Red Note (Little Red Book) and Lemon8 (owned by Bytedance). I imagine both apps could be considered foreign adversary-controlled and banned on the same legislative basis as TikTok.

The TikTok "ban" is a great TP for the CCP to undermine U.S. leadership on the open internet, esp as Xiaohongshu trends to #1 in the app store, and its CEO welcomes American "TikTok refugees." 🤦‍♀️CCP State Media is GLEEFUL. We need a better approach. dfrlab.org/2024/02/14/t...

Ok, Xiaohongshu (Rednote) is NOT named after Mao’s Little Red Book but after the dominant color of Stanford where the founder got an MBA. It has a capitalist origin! m.36kr.com/p/1724258762753

As I said for Rishi Iyengar's Foreign Policy piece, a big problem with the TikTok conversation is it frames the risk to Americans’ data security as a problem that can be solved by a ban. But we still end up having bigger & more consequential US data unprotected & available to buy.

The #TikTokBan isn’t just about one platform. DFRLab's Graham Brookie Kenton Thibaut - @kentonthibaut.bksy.social Mark Scott, Emerson T. Brooking & Konstantinos Komaitis offer insightful perspectives on the ripple effects of this landmark decision bit.ly/3WnzSCk

Great piece by the excellent Sarah Cook in her Underreported China substack. Definitely subscribe while you're at it! "What’s Next for American Users on China's RedNote? Four Scenarios:" underreportedchina.substack.com/p/whats-next-f…

Amidst all that happened in the last 24 hrs, Donald J. Trump changed long-standing US policy by acknowledging N. Korea’s status as “a nuclear power,” fulfilling a long-term goal of the regime as noted in the U.S NIE declassified version presented CSIS last year.

As we wait to see the Trump admin's plans re: AI & national security, we asked industry experts what nat sec principles & policy choices in Biden's AI NSM should be carried forward, what should change, & where there is natural continuity between Trump & Biden's approaches 👇

In this piece for Lawfare, I argue that focusing tech policy solely on Chinese security risks overlooks systemic flaws in the U.S. tech ecosystem that could end up undermining national security in the long run. Thanks to the colleagues who provided great feedback for the piece!

US demand for Taiwan-produced chips now is fairly inelastic. There aren’t many viable alternatives. Fabs take years to build in US. Unless this is intended to push Taiwan to commit to US investments/purchases, doesn’t make much sense.pcmag.com/news/trump-to-…

Very happy to share this conversation w/ my colleague Sam Winter-Levy about DeepSeek and the implications for 🇨🇳-🇺🇸. (link in next tweet) Lots of good nuggets (IMHO), including this one that I think gets completely overlooked in US analysis of the CCP's relationship to tech co's:

Tune in TOMORROW at 10:30am to see ACGlobalChina's Dr. Melanie Hart testify before SFRC on China's global malign influence efforts, and how to best position the U.S. to counter them. She is one of the best there is on this topic - don't miss it! tinyurl.com/37kk2dkz

It was great to work with Bellingcat on this piece, where we discuss data privacy and security concerns specific to Chinese tech companies that have been linked to the MrDeepFakes porn website.

.ACGlobalChina’s Melanie Hart: “Beijing engages in information warfare.” “It seeks to control information at home and abroad and use that control to advance its objectives at America’s expense,” she said Thursday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on China’s malign influence.