These efforts fit into a broader context of preventing foreign adversaries from manipulating U.S. current events. For example, foreign actors have attempted to utilize disinformation to exacerbate and exploit pre-existing racial tensions domestically, to promote extreme points of view, and to illegally influence American political processes. The protests against the Minneapolis Police Department following George Floyd’s death in May 2020 are a prime example. According to a review of social media activity by Politico, Chinese- and Russian-backed outlets retweeted more than 1,200 times about U.S. domestic affairs, using hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter and #Minneapolis. These digital actors portray the U.S. as a country on the brink, often highlighting the perceived hypocrisy of America’s rebukes of Moscow and Beijing’s civil rights abuses.
