China-linked campaign harasses dissident's teenage daughter

Deng Yuwen, a prominent Chinese writer who now lives in exile in suburban Philadelphia, regularly criticizes China and its authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping. China's response has been harsh of late, with crude and disturbing attacks online.

A secret propaganda network linked to the country's security services has attacked not only Mr. Deng but also his teenage daughter with sexually suggestive and threatening messages on popular social media platforms, according to researchers from Clemson University and Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram.

The content, posted by users with fake identities, appeared in replies to Mr. Deng's posts on X, the social platform, as well as in the accounts of public schools in their community , where the girl, aged 16, was falsely portrayed as a drug user, an arsonist and a prostitute.

“I tried to delete these messages " Mr. Deng said of the online attacks, speaking in Mandarin Chinese in an interview, "but I didn't succeed, because today you try to delete and tomorrow they just change the account to let the attacking text and language. posted on Facebook community pages and even sites like TripAdvisor; Patch, a community information platform; and Niche, a website that helps parents choose a school, according to researchers.

The harassment fits into a pattern of online bullying that has rung alarm in Washington, as well as in Canada. and other countries where China's attacks have become increasingly brazen. The campaign included thousands of messages that researchers linked to a network of social media accounts known as Spamouflage or Dragonbridge, an arm of the country's vast propaganda apparatus.

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