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Seeing Through a GLASSBRIDGE: Understanding the Digital Marketing Ecosystem Spreading Pro-PRC Influence Operations
- GLASSBRIDGE is an umbrella group of four different companies that operate networks of inauthentic news sites and newswire services that 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).
- By using private PR firms, the actors behind the information operations (IO) gain plausible deniability, obscuring their role in the dissemination of coordinated inauthentic content.
- The four PR firms operate in a similar fashion, bulk-creating dozens of domains at a time and sharing thematically similar inauthentic content. The firms target audiences outside the PRC.
- The most prolific among the PR firms supporting pro-China IO campaigns is Shanghai Haixun Technology Co. Google has removed more than 600 policy-violating domains linked to the firm from the ability to appear in Google News features. The sites target English- and Chinese-speaking audiences.
- Two of the PR firms discussed in this post directly control and operate the newswire services.
- The views expressed in the conspiracy and smear content were similar to past pro-PRC IO campaigns—for example, character attacks against the Chinese virologist Yan Limeng.
- DURINBRIDGE likely published the IO content on behalf of a customer or partner. Most of the content on the sites is news and press releases from various sources and has no apparent links to coordinated influence campaigns.
- In early 2024, TAG and Mandiant identified a fourth marketing firm that operates a network of over 100 domains that pose as independent news sites focused on countries and cities across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia.
- The inauthentic news sites operated by GLASSBRIDGE illustrate how information operations actors have embraced methods beyond social media in an attempt to spread their narratives. We have observed similar behavior from Russian and Iranian IO actors.
- In the case of GLASSBRIDGE, the consistency in content, behavioral similarities, connections across firms, and pro-PRC messaging suggests the private firms take direction from a shared customer who outsourced the creation of influence campaigns.
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