Logically Bulletin: Chinese state media spread Spanish-language disinformation

Logically Bulletin: Chinese state media spread Spanish-language disinformation that the U.S. Supreme Court had already ruled that POTUS 45 is eligible to run in the 2024 presidential election almost a month before the official SCOTUS ruling

By Alex Nelson

Summary

Almost a month before the U.S. Supreme Court’s (SCOTUS) March 4 ruling that POTUS 45 is eligible to run in the 2024 presidential election, a Spanish-language Chinese state media outlet with 575.8k followers posted¹ on X falsely claiming that SCOTUS had already ruled in favor of POTUS 45. The February 8 post garnered two reposts, two likes, one comment, and 947 views (as of 12:58pm ET on February 22, 2024).
This narrative was then amplified by Spanish-speaking users on platforms such as Facebook², X³, and YouTube⁴.
The Chinese state media outlet, CGTN Español, posted about SCOTUS taking up the POTUS 45 ballot eligibility lawsuit on X at least four times over the past two months. CGTN Español did not post related content on its official accounts on other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
CGTN Español’s posts on other platforms focus largely on sharing Chinese cultural content. By contrast, CGTN Español’s X profile shares predominantly international political content.
CGTN Español and other Chinese state media have previously published Spanish-language articles that propagate the broader narrative that the US electoral, political, and overall democratic system is dysfunctional
- Article claims that “American democracy has long ceased to be convincing”⁵
- Article claims that “American democracy should not be the best model to follow when talking about citizen participation and suitable policies to solve the problems of a nation as complex as the United States”⁶
- Article claims that “American democracy serves the wealthy class” and “American-style democracy cannot resolve serious social conflicts”⁷
- Article claims that 2022 midterms show flaws in democratic system⁸
- Article claims that “American democracy is the height of hypocrisy”^{9 10}
- Article claims that “the US democracy is a money game, and the recent midterm elections are another example to prove it”¹¹
CGTN Español and other Chinese state media also previously published Spanish-language articles that use current divisive political issues related to the 2024 election cycle to propagate the aforementioned narrative:
- Article claims that the immigration crisis is the “is the beginning of the decline and collapse of the United states”¹²
- Article claims that one of the trials against former President Trump demonstrates “the vicious cycle of democratic distortion, political incompetence and social discord in the United States”¹³

Analysis

This narrative was shared by at least five users on Facebook, 13 users on X, and one user on YouTube. One post¹⁴ on X amplifying this narrative garnered 479 reposts, 637 likes, seven comments, and 10.6k views, which is approximately 59,200% more engagementcompared to their average over the ten preceding posts.
This narrative was repeated by Spanish-speaking online users, including at least six that self-report as being located in the United States¹⁵, and could have caused confusion among U.S. voters regarding POTUS 45’s eligibility in the U.S. 2024 elections.
This was likely intended to sow discord and exacerbate existing political polarization regarding the U.S. 2024 elections and more broadly among Spanish-communities, both within the United States and across Latin America, which tend to be strongly interconnected.
This aligns with broader trends regarding how China uses state-backed disinformation and propaganda to further their political, economic, and military objectives. In recent years, China has more actively used disinformation and propaganda to sow discord within the U.S. and directly counter U.S. interests abroad (e.g., in the Global South), rather than just promoting China’s own image and interests abroad (e.g., among trade partners and the Chinese diaspora).
China is likely to deploy further Spanish-language disinformation and propaganda related to the 2024 elections throughout the election cycle. This disinformation and propaganda will likely seek to exploit divisive political issues in order to propagate the broader narrative that the overall U.S. democratic system is dysfunctional.

Examples

Chinese state media spread Spanish-language disinformation that the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that POTUS 45 is eligible to run in the 2024 presidential election

References

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