Google blocked 1,000-plus pro-China fake news websites from its search results

Google’s Threat Intelligence Group has blocked a network China-related firms from its search results for operating fake news services and websites.

“Collectively these firms bulk-create and operate hundreds of domains that pose as independent news websites from dozens of countries, but are in fact publishing thematically similar, inauthentic content that emphasizes narratives aligned to the political interests of the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” declared Google.

It’s named the network “Glassbridge” and asserted it’s comprised of entities operating in concert while pretending to be independent.

While Google could not confirm the leadership of Glassbridge, it assessed that the four entities – Shanghai Haixun Technology, Times Newswire, Durinbridge, and Shenzhen Bowen Media – were taking direction from a shared customer outsourcing the creation and distribution of pro-PRC content.

That content included regurgitated state sponsored media, press releases and other material. When it appeared online, it often did so mixed alongside more innocuous content, as well as conspiracy theories or ad hominem attacks on specific individuals.

The actors behind the campaign used digital PR firms, a ploy Google feels gave the operation plausible deniability, and could obscure the true source’s role in the “dissemination of coordinated inauthentic content.”

The most prolific of the four entities was Shanghai Haixun Technology. It had 600 domains that Google removed from its news search feature, and a number of YouTube channels that were also terminated. The group has been operating for a while – in 2022, 59 domains and 14 subdomains hosted by Shanghai Haixun were identified by Mandiant as slinging bogus pro-Beijing content.

Overall, Google revealed it has blocked over 1,000 sites from Google News and Google Discover since 2022. The takedowns were a response to what the search giant deemed deceptive behavior, and out of editorial transparency.

The Chocolate Factory reckons that Glassbridge’s use of newswires indicates that information operations actors have moved beyond social media to spread their narratives. Similar tactics have been observed at Russian and Iranian operators.

But that doesn’t mean Beijing is abandoning its foreign influencers. Plenty of government-linked trolls have been spotted this year – including from a separate influencing operations group tracked as Dragonbridge.

Dragonbridge content is also regularly found on websites related to Durinbridge and Shenzhen Bowen, Google’s researchers wrote. ®

READ MORE HERE