A China-linked Spamouflage network is targeting Tibetans with growing sophistication but limited reach.
A Chinese influence operation consisting of ninety Facebook profiles and thirteen Instagram profiles is targeting the April 26 elections for the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. The operation is connected to a larger network that posts narratives about the Philippines, the United States, Taiwan, and Japan.
The Tibetan government-in-exile, formally known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), is headquartered in Dharamshala, India, which serves as the political home for Tibetans who fled Chinese rule after the Dalai Lama’s flight from Lhasa in 1959. It runs its own democratic elections: one for the political leader called the Sikyong, and one for parliament. On April 26, Tibetans will vote to fill the parliament’s 45 seats. The Sikyong election already concluded in February, when incumbent Penpa Tsering, a vocal critic of Beijing and advocate for Tibetan rights internationally, secured a second term.
Beijing has long sought to weaken the exile government’s standing. Graphika previously found that the China-linked influence operation Spamouflage used AI to augment its targeting of CTA elections, with coordinated accounts on Tumblr and X going after specific candidates.
…
The Facebook Spamouflage network is pushing overlapping narratives. The most common is a personal attack on re-elected leader Penpa Tsering, portraying him as corrupt and power-hungry. Another narrative casts the election itself as manipulated, seizing on real internal controversies. Another attacks the exile government as dominated by monks and the Dalai Lama. The network tries to drive wedges within the community. The goal is to erode trust in the exile government, weaken its international voice, and raise doubts about whether it can credibly represent Tibetans without the Dalai Lama. However, virtually none of these posts seem to have attracted any organic engagement, possibly because all the identified assets are regular Facebook profiles with limited reach and not established pages.
…
The Spamouflage network’s targeting of the April 26 elections is the latest chapter in a years-long information operation against the CTA, one that has grown more sophisticated with AI-generated imagery but remains largely unable to generate organic traction among the Tibetan communities it seeks to influence.