\n<\/p>\n
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence included social media platform TikTok as a leading threat in a recent report.<\/p>\n
The annual threat assessment<\/a>, released last month, \u201cfocuses on the most direct, serious threats to the United States primarily during the next year.\u201d Some of the threats discussed in the report include state actors, technology, international conflicts, environmental elements, and organized crime.<\/p>\n Discussing malign influence operations, the report said, \u201cBeijing is expanding its global covert influence posture to better support the CCP\u2019s goals. The PRC aims to sow doubts about U.S. leadership, undermine democracy, and extend Beijing\u2019s influence. Beijing\u2019s information operations primarily focus on promoting pro-China narratives, refuting U.S.promoted narratives, and countering U.S. and other countries\u2019 policies that threaten Beijing\u2019s interests, including China\u2019s international image, access to markets, and technological expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n TikTok is part of China\u2019s influence operation, according to the report. \u201cChina is demonstrating a higher degree of sophistication in its influence activity, including experimenting with generative AI,\u201d it read. \u201cTikTok accounts run by a PRC propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n China is expected to interfere in the 2024 elections because of its \u201cdesire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPRC actors\u2019 have increased their capabilities to conduct covert influence operations and disseminate disinformation,\u201d the report continued. \u201cEven if Beijing sets limits on these activities, individuals not under its direct supervision may attempt election influence activities they perceive are in line with Beijing\u2019s goals.\u201d<\/p>\n The report comes<\/a> as the RAND Corporation\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0testimony from policy researcher Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga regarding the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) efforts into \u201ccyber-enabled influence operations\u201d (IO).<\/p>\n By adopting \u201ccognitive domain operations,\u201d the Chinese military is focused on a \u201cpsychological or cognitive decision to surrender, as compared with the 20th century construct of total warfare and complete physical exhaustion of adversary military capabilities and resources,\u201d according to Beauchamp-Mustafaga.<\/p>\n The CCP has used \u201csynthetic information,\u201d which was described as the production of \u201cinauthentic content based on some amount of original information,\u201d as well as social media algorithms, to enable \u201cprecision cognitive attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n