Panic-fueling coronavirus texts may have been the work of Chinese agents, report claims

In March, text messages about the U.S. going into nationwide lockdown caused a wave of panic, prompting the National Security Council to publicly declare them as fake. 

Now, a new report by the New York Times claims Chinese operatives may have helped proliferate those messages, using new, “alarming” techniques. 

Citing six unnamed American officials working in six different agencies, the report claims that Chinese agents helped push the messages across platforms. What makes this particularly troublesome is the fact that these messages showed up on people’s phones as texts, which is a disinformation tactic that some of the New York Times‘ sources haven’t encountered before. 

In one example, a text message urged people to “stock up” with a “two week supply of everything,” claiming that the President will order a two week nation-wide quarantine “within 48 to 72 hours.” The message urged the recipients to forward the info to their contacts. 

The fake info was also spread through Facebook and encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp, with the latter being especially problematic as it made it harder for law enforcement to track. 

It’s unclear where and how the messages originated. Some of the officials said the Chinese agents likely did not create the messages, but rather amplified existing messages. After a critical mass mass was reached, the messages continued to spread on their own. This tactic is similar to the Russian disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election. 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry told the New York Times that the allegations are “complete nonsense” and “not worth refuting.”

The goal behind such a disinformation campaign, according to the New York Times’ report, is creating political division within the American public, and is a part of an ongoing information war between China and the United States. 

The report claims that other rival powers besides China may have been involved in the dissemination of the messages, but offers no further details. On Tuesday, Politico cited an unpublished State Department report that warned of a disinformation “onslaught” launched against the U.S. by China, Iran and Russia.