China's troll army: From teachers to riders, all fake

"The problem: they're not real people but carefully curated masks, created by a covert unit of "dedicated keyboard warriors" paid to infiltrate the daily conversations of Filipinos, as part of sophisticated and foreign-funded operations. Internal onboarding documents from InfinitUs Marketing Solutions, a marketing firm allegedly hired by the Chinese embassy, show what could be information operations designed to "change the overall negative perception of Filipinos about the Chinese and China," according to its written guidelines."

"This unfolds against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the West Philippine Sea, where China continues to assert its claims through both physical aggression and propaganda. But the battleground has shifted from the open seas to the digital sphere. While InfinitUs is not the first case study of commercialized disinformation that's been made public, this signals a critical evolution in influence operations."

"For one, InfinitUs' alleged client is the Chinese embassy in the Philippines, which would implicate the People's Republic of China in domestic interference. And while this is not the first time that Beijing has been linked to coordinated information operations in the Philippines, the leaked documents provide a rare and granular look at the "outsourcing" of these operations to local firms, weaponizing Filipinos against their own democracy."

Profiles on Facebook posed as a teacher, a college student, and a construction worker but were fabricated masks created by a covert unit of paid keyboard warriors to infiltrate Filipino conversations. Internal onboarding documents from InfinitUs Marketing Solutions, a marketing firm allegedly hired by the Chinese embassy, outline operations aimed at changing Filipino perceptions of Chinese people and China. The campaign operated amid escalating tensions in the West Philippine Sea, shifting influence efforts from physical confrontation to online information warfare. Leaked materials show outsourcing of coordinated influence to local firms, potentially implicating foreign involvement in domestic interference and weaponizing citizens against democratic processes.

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