cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/55641428

Russia is targeting Poland, Germany and France with disinformation aimed at weakening support for Ukraine’s European Union membership bid.

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The report by the European External Action Service (EEAS) and Ukraine’s government Center for Countering Disinformation says Moscow is using official state media, social media accounts, anonymous networks and manipulated content to sow dissent inside the EU and undermine Ukraine’s place in Europe.

The campaign is part of Russia’s wider aggression against Ukraine. Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, after years of trying to keep Kyiv inside its sphere of influence.

Ukraine applied to join the EU four days later. It received official candidate status in June 2022; accession talks opened in 2024, and the first substantive negotiation cluster was opened earlier this month.

The report says Russia’s messaging deliberately exploits sensitive issues in European societies, including corruption, security, national identity, migration and the economic cost of supporting Ukraine.

Poland is described as especially exposed to messages targeting Ukrainian refugees, who are frequently portrayed in Russian propaganda as criminal or dangerous.

‘Kremlin fears Ukraine’s success’

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Russia’s actions were “neither isolated nor accidental.”

“They are deliberate, coordinated, and persistent,” Kallas said. “They seek to exploit fears related to corruption, security, identity, and economic costs. They target audiences both in Ukraine and across EU member states, aiming to undermine Ukraine’s accession to the EU.”

Kallas added that Russia’s campaign points to “an important truth: the Kremlin fears Ukraine’s success.”

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Analysts examined 244,000 social media posts published between January 2025 and May 2026 on platforms including Telegram, X, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.

The content reached more than 1.39 billion views. The report identified 2,680 sources showing signs of inauthentic behavior, meaning coordinated activity that did not appear to come from ordinary, independent users.

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Meanwhile, a Russian disinformation campaign aims to fuel tensions between Ukraine and Poland.

A video circulating on social media and anonymous Telegram channels is being passed off by Russian propagandists as a Euronews news report. It falsely claims that Poland is preparing to deport 50,000 Ukrainians amid diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

This claim is false.

No such reports have appeared on Euronews’ official website or its social media accounts. The video bears clear signs of manipulation and was compiled using third-party photos and video footage that are publicly available online. Moreover, it depicts isolated incidents rather than providing evidence of any mass deportations.

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Similar fabrications are part of the broader Russian disinformation campaign known as “Matryoshka,” which disguises fake content as reports from reputable media outlets, government institutions, or fact-checking organizations. The objective of these operations is to create the illusion of credibility by imitating trusted sources, using fabricated front pages, screenshots, videos, and documents.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54247012

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Here is the full report: TCHRD 2025 Annual Report on the Human Rights Situation in Tibet (pdf)

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) launched its 2025 Annual Report on the Human Rights Situation in Tibet.

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In 2025, Tibet continued to remain one of the least free places in the world, receiving a Global Freedom Score of 0 out of 100 by Freedom House.

Under the continued leadership of Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party expanded policies aimed at reshaping Tibetan identity through tighter legal regulation, political indoctrination, heightened surveillance, and systematic cultural assimilation.

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The year witnessed intensified state interference in Tibetan religious life and institutions. New measures further consolidated Party control over monasteries and religious practices, requiring monastic institutions to align more closely with CCP ideology. Heightened restrictions surrounding the 90th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama illustrated the extent of China’s fear of Tibetan religious identity, as authorities imposed sweeping security measures, intensified censorship, and cracked down on displays of devotion to the Tibetan spiritual leader.

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One of the most alarming cases documented during the reporting period involved the extrajudicial killing of Tibetan religious leader Tulku Hungkar Dorje in Viet Nam following his detention during a joint operation involving Chinese and Vietnamese authorities. The case raised grave concerns regarding China’s growing transnational repression and the targeting of Tibetan religious leaders and activists beyond its borders.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/53903311

The campaign of repression against the Uyghurs has entered a new phase.

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In August 2024, the parents of Ekpar Asat made a long journey to a prison in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Asat, who belongs to the Uyghur ethnic group, was detained by authorities in April 2016 on charges of “inciting ethnic hatred”. The founder of a popular Uyghur-language website, he had recently returned from attending a prestigious leadership programme in the US.

The May visit was the first time Asat’s parents had seen him in person since his disappearance, and he had lost so much weight he was “unrecognisable”, his sister Rayhan later said.

The meeting lasted barely 10 minutes and was done through a glass window, according to human rights groups. The family was forced to speak in Chinese — a language Ekpar is fluent in, but his parents barely speak — and not permitted to show any emotion. “Prisoners have to be always happy,” Rayhan tells the FT.

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Analysis suggests that the Chinese state’s campaign of oppression against Uyghurs and their culture and identity has in fact entered a new phase. While many camps have shut, a vast network of prisons and detention centres remains, alongside pervasive surveillance and systems of coercive social control.

It shows Xinjiang has the world’s highest prison detention capacity relative to its population size — evidence that authorities continue to rely on mass incarceration. Researchers and rights groups say repression in the region now extends towards the long-term remaking of Uyghur society.

Beijing has expanded labour transfer programmes that move Uyghurs into factory work elsewhere in the country — schemes UN experts say can amount to forced labour. This places multinational corporations that work in China in a challenging situation, as Beijing is also making it increasingly difficult and dangerous for companies to perform due diligence in their supply chains so they do not target Uyghur rights.

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Researchers say the campaign reflects Beijing’s drive to assimilate Uyghurs into mainstream Han Chinese identity amid rising nationalism under Xi Jinping.

Uyghurs’ distinct language, culture and Islamic faith create a “degree of insecurity that has only intensified as China has begun taking this profoundly nationalistic turn”, says historian Hannah Theaker. “They just want to force them to be Chinese,” adds Peter Irwin, co-executive director of the Network for Uyghur Rights.

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Xinjiang is also strategically important to Beijing, as it straddles trade routes linking China to Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe, while holding large reserves of coal, oil and gas. “They see it as an economic engine for the country,” Irwin says.

China continues to frame its policies in Xinjiang as essential to security and stability. In a speech last year, Xi stressed the need for readiness in “combating terrorism”. State media said Xi also called for religions to “conform to China’s realities” and for officials and ethnic groups to “develop a correct view” of the country, its history, nation, culture and religion.

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China tightly controls information from the region, censoring online material, restricting travel and intimidating Uyghurs abroad through threats against relatives back home. But the FT was able to gather a picture of the current situation from human rights observers, members of the diaspora, and people who recently left China and witnessed the mechanisms used to control Uyghurs.

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Human rights researchers believe many facilities remain occupied. More than 578,000 people were prosecuted in Xinjiang between 2017 and 2022, according to figures compiled by the Uyghur Human Rights Project from official data. Given China’s conviction rate of more than 99.9 per cent and the long prison terms handed down during the crackdown, researchers believe many of those sentenced are likely still imprisoned.

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The figures suggest that if Xinjiang were a country, it would have the highest incarceration rate in the world, at 1,944 per 100,000 people. China’s nationwide rate is 119 per 100,000 people, according to the World Prison Brief.

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Uyghurs interviewed by the FT say large parts of their families have been detained. Nureli Abliz, a former telecoms worker in Xinjiang, estimates that roughly 70 per cent of his extended family remain in custody.

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The campaign to assimilate Uyghurs into mainstream Han Chinese culture is reshaping a generation, particularly children separated from their families through Xinjiang’s vast boarding school system.

Boarding schools have long existed across the region, often justified by authorities as a way to provide education in rural areas. But official documents also describe them as a way to teach children Mandarin and “[block] the influence of the family’s religious atmosphere”.

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Uyghur activists say the removal of children from their families and communities is creating a “generation gap” in which many no longer understand their language and culture. Lessons are taught in Mandarin, and families say children are not allowed to speak Uyghur.

“Young children lose their language skills very quickly,” says Abduweli Ayup, a Uyghur linguist and activist. In one family, he says, siblings learnt different Mandarin dialects from their respective teachers. “Now the children can’t communicate with one another.”

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A new law downgrades languages other than Mandarin, encourages inter-ethnic marriage and requires parents to raise children to “love the Chinese Communist Party”.

“Everything that once reflected Uyghur civilisation — our culture, our language — has been wiped out,” says a Uyghur man who recently visited the region from the US.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/53805497

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Here is the report: From Watchdogs to Ideologues - How Politicized UN Rapporteurs Are Subverting Human Rights (pdf)

In November 2006, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the system of Special Procedures as “the crown jewel of the UN human rights system.” Nearly two decades later, that jewel has lost much of its luster—tarnished by politicization, disregard for impartiality, and a complete failure of accountability to minimal norms and professional standards.

The Human Rights Council today maintains 59 Special Procedures mandates—46 dealing with global themes, and 13 addressing specific countries—an increase of nearly 30% from when the Council was created in 2006. Although Special Procedures are unsalaried, they receive certain financial support when carrying out official duties, including UN funding for country visits, as well as training, staffing support, and other institutional resources.

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Yet, like the body that appoints them—the 47-member Human Rights Council, a majority of whose members are non-democracies—the Special Procedures have become politicized. The mechanism increasingly functions not as an independent human rights safeguard, but as a vehicle for ideological advocacy, selective targeting, and the laundering of unverified and even spurious allegations through the authority of the United Nations.

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[According to a new report], the reality of the Special Procedures system increasingly diverges from the admiring scholarly assessments. Rather than operating as independent and impartial experts, many mandate-holders now use country visits and thematic reports to advance politicized narratives, disproportionately target democratic states, and shield authoritarian regimes from scrutiny. As detailed below, structural deficiencies—including politicized appointments, proliferation of mandates, weakened evidentiary standards, lack of transparency, and the absence of accountability—have eroded the credibility and integrity of the system in practice.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/52437522

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Southeast Asian military organizations have been targeted in a China-linked cyberespionage campaign running for years, Palo Alto Networks reports.

Likely ongoing since at least 2020 and attributed to a state-sponsored threat actor tracked as CL-STA-1087, the activity shows a high degree of patience, as the attackers stayed dormant in the compromised environments for months.

“The attackers behind this cluster actively searched for and collected highly specific files concerning military capabilities, organizational structures, and collaborative efforts with Western armed forces,” Palo Alto Networks notes.

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Here is the technical report: Suspected China-Based Espionage Operation Against Military Targets in Southeast Asia

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/52177818

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Finland is facing a growing intelligence challenge as Russia and China cyberespionage targeting Finland continues to expand across the country’s technology sector, research institutions, and government networks. The warning comes from Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service (SUPO), which released a new national security overview highlighting the persistent threat from foreign intelligence operations.

The report suggests cyber espionage against Finland is not limited to isolated incidents. Instead, it involves a combination of cyber intrusions, traditional espionage, and influence operations designed to collect sensitive information and shape political or economic decisions.

The warning about Russia and China cyberespionage targeting Finland reflects that countries are no longer focused only on military secrets but also targeting technology development, economic strategies, and innovation ecosystems. Russia and China Cyberespionage Targeting Finland’s Technology Sector

According to the SUPO national security overview, the most frequent intelligence operations linked to foreign states originate from Russia and China. These activities increasingly focus on Finland’s technology sector and research institutions, areas that play a key role in the country’s economic and strategic future.

The report notes that Russia and China cyberespionage targeting Finland often involves penetrating digital systems to access research data, proprietary technologies, and policy discussions. In several cases, state-backed actors have successfully infiltrated the networks of Finnish start-ups.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31995242

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Unveiling Trae: ByteDance’s AI IDE and Its Extensive Data Collection System

Trae - the coding assistant of China’s ByteDance - has rapidly emerged as a formidable competitor to established AI coding assistants like Cursor and GitHub Copilot. Its main selling point? It’s completely free - offering Claude 3.7 Sonnet and GPT-4o without any subscription fees. Unit 221B’s technical analysis, using network traffic interception, binary analysis, and runtime monitoring, has identified a sophisticated telemetry framework that continuously transmits data to multiple ByteDance servers. From a cybersecurity perspective, this represents a complex data collection operation with significant security and privacy implications.

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Key Findings:

• Persistent connections to minimum 5 unique ByteDance domains, creating multiple data transmission vectors
• Continuous telemetry transmission even during idle periods, indicating an always-on monitoring system
• Regular update checks and configuration pulls from ByteDance servers, allowing for dynamic control
• Permanent device identification via machineId parameter, which appears to be derived from hardware identifiers, enabling long-term tracking capabilities
• Local WebSocket channels observed collecting full file content, with portions potentially transmitted to remote servers
• Complex local microservice architecture with redundant pathways for code data, suggesting a deliberate system design
• JWT tokens and authentication data observed in multiple communication channels, presenting potential credential exposure concerns
• Use of binary MessagePack format observed in data transfers, adding complexity to security analysis
• Extensive behavioral tracking mechanisms capable of building detailed user activity profiles
• Sophisticated data segregation across multiple endpoints, consistent with enterprise-grade telemetry systems

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