“Tech and Tariffs” Campaign: Influence activity targeting US tech policy

This case study was originally published in OpenAI’s June 2026⁠(opens in a new window) report on PRC-linked influence operations targeting AI debates in the US.

Actor

We banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that likely originated in China and used our models to generate short comments and political cartoons criticizing US tech policies and tariffs, edit work reports and assist the user in designing social media monitoring systems. The accounts prompted ChatGPT in Simplified Chinese and used VPNs to access our platform.

Their prompts repeatedly used terminology consistent with individuals associated with China’s public security system, such as seeking public opinion risk assessments concerning protests, school-bullying incidents, crowd movements in Shanghai, police-related incidents, petitioning activity and traffic enforcement. One user described the social media accounts it operated as a “water army” (水军), a common Chinese term referring to coordinated online accounts that flood platforms with criticisms or trolls, and instructed ChatGPT to generate content that would benefit the PRC or advance pro-PRC narratives. Taken together, these indicators suggest that the accounts were likely supporting activities aligned with the interests of the CCP, although we could not establish the operators’ precise institutional affiliation.

Separately, we identified a network on X targeting OpenAI with false claims that ChatGPT user data had been compromised and we assessed, based on open-source behavioral indicators, that this activity was likely part of the same X network identified in this operation.

Screenshot of likely inauthentic X accounts falsely claiming ChatGPT user data was compromised.

Behavior

Screenshots of X posts where the text and images were generated by this operation.