Seeing Through a GLASSBRIDGE: Understanding the Digital Marketing Ecosystem Spreading Pro-PRC Influence Operations

Written by: Vanessa Molter

Special thanks to Mandiant's Ryan Serabian for his contributions to this analysis.

This blog post details GLASSBRIDGE—an umbrella group of four different companies that operate networks of inauthentic news sites and newswire services tracked by the Google Threat Intelligence Group (consisting of Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Mandiant). Collectively these firms bulk-create and operate hundreds of domains that pose as independent news websites from dozens of countries, but are in fact publishing thematically similar, inauthentic content that emphasizes narratives aligned to the political interests of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Since 2022, Google has blocked more than a thousand GLASSBRIDGE-operated websites from eligibility to appear in Google News features and Google Discover because these sites violated our policies that prohibit deceptive behavior and require editorial transparency. 

We cannot attribute who hired these services to create the sites and publish content ...