Blind Sided

Excerpt

In June 2022, Facebook and Twitter accounts suddenly focused their wrath on Australian company Lynas. The previous year, Lynas—the largest rare earths mining and processing company outside China—had inked a deal with the U.S. Department of Defense to build a processing facility for rare earth elements in Texas. Over a year after the deal was signed, concerned Texas residents began taking to social media to loudly voice opposition to the deal. They claimed the facility would create pollution and toxic waste, endangering the local population. Residents disparaged Lynas’s environmental record, and called for protests against the construction of the processing facility and a boycott of the company.

Only these posts weren’t coming from Texas residents at all. The lead voices on the topic weren’t even real identities. The campaign was led by fake accounts set up and maintained by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in an information operation (IO) aimed at smearing the image of China’s competitors in the field of rare earths—metals critical to producing advanced electronics, electric vehicles, batteries, and renewable energy systems. China is a behemoth in this field, controlling over 80% of global production of rare earths, and is eager to maintain its supply chain dominance.¹

Dr. Ashley Mattheis is a scholar, lecturer, and research consultant. Her work brings together cultural studies, media studies, and rhetorical criticism to explore topics such as the visual rhetoric of far-right extremist propaganda and the impact of digital technology and media on democratic culture. Her publications include “Does the Institution have a Plan for That?: Researcher Safety and the Ethics of Institutional Responsibility,” in Researching Cybercrimes: Methodologies, Ethics, and Critical Approaches,and ‘The Greatness of Her Position’: Comparing Identitarian and Jihadi Discourses on Women, a report published by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. Dr. Mattheis recently worked as a visiting researcher at the Cyberthreats Research Centre (CYTREC) at Swansea University, studying extremist use of Telegram. She also produces public-facing scholarship through fellowships with the U.K.-based Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right and the U.S.-based Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. She has previously been an Associate Fellow with the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET). Dr. Mattheis holds a Ph.D. in communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a scholar, author, practitioner, and entrepreneur who is the founder and chief executive officer of Valens Global. Dr. Gartenstein-Ross has been described by the director of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Strategic Multilayer Assessment program as “the expert that the experts call to discuss the nettlesome challenges with terrorism and counterterrorism.” In addition to leading Valens Global, Dr. Gartenstein-Ross serves as a senior advisor on asymmetric warfare at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an associate fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, and is a faculty member at both Carnegie Mellon University and Duke University. He has previously held positions with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Google’s tech incubator Jigsaw, and Georgetown University. Dr. Gartenstein-Ross has led several major projects focusing on strategic communications and disinformation, including working as a European Union-appointed strategic communications expert to train Nigerian civil-society activists on militant groups’ use of the online space; mapping the online counter-ISIS narrative space for Google’s Redirect Method; and assessing the impact of counter-messaging campaigns for the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center. Dr. Gartenstein-Ross has testified before the European Parliament, Canadian House of Commons, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives on relevant topics. He holds a Ph.D. in world politics from the Catholic University of America and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.

Ms. Varsha Koduvayur is a senior analyst in the Strategic Futures and Research program at the Irregular Warfare Center. In this role, she conducts research on irregular warfare and its evolution, and supports the Center’s publication efforts. She is also a research manager at Valens Global. Prior to joining Valens, Ms. Koduvayur was a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where she covered the Gulf Arab states. Her work has appeared in Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and CNN Business, among other outlets. Ms. Koduvayur holds a B.A. in international relations and Arabic from Michigan State University.

Mr. Cody Wilson contributed to this report while working as an analyst at Valens Global. He holds a master’s degree in global studies and international relations, with a concentration in conflict resolution, from Northeastern University. Mr. Wilson previously earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in international relations from the University of California, Los Angeles. During his time at Valens, Mr. Wilson contributed to reports used in federal litigation, helped execute eight successful wargames, designed a cybersecurity-focused tabletop exercise, and produced reports for the U.S. government.

1. Sabri Ben-Achour, “Chinese Group Faked Social Media Posts Against a Planned Texas Rare-Earth Metal Plant, Researchers Say,” Marketplace, June 29, 2022, https://www.marketplace.org/2022/06/29/chinese-group-faked-social-media-posts-against-texas-rare-earth-metal-plant-researchers-say/.