Thinning the ICE: Russian and Chinese Messaging on the Los Angeles Protests

Krystyna Sikora,
Etienne Soula,
Peter Benzoni

Since the protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles began last weekend, false and misleading information about the demonstrations and the Trump administration’s crackdown have proliferated online. Though partisan actors have driven many of the falsehoods, foreign adversaries have also seized on the unrest to promote conspiracies and narratives aimed at further sowing chaos and denigrating the United States.

Russia

Russian influence actors exploited the escalation of events in Los Angeles to exacerbate partisan divides, pushing narratives and conspiracies intended to slander protesters and Democrats. Russian state media and pro-Kremlin propagandists leaned on narratives that sought to portray Los Angeles as a “war zone”, characterizing the anti-ICE protestors as “rebels” and likening the demonstrations to color revolutions. These narratives were echoed across the Pravda network, a conglomeration of more than 200 pro-Kremlin news portals that launder Russian propaganda in more than 80 countries and regions worldwide. Pravda Trump, an English-language site, for example, repurposed a Telegram interview of Sergei Markov, a former close advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he claimed the United States was in the midst of a “civil war” between the coastal regions and interior states.

These narratives were buttressed by content aimed at painting protestors as violent. Russian messengers mocked Democratic leaders, including Kamala Harris, for saying the protests were mostly “peaceful” and amplified videos depicting demonstrators looting and vandalizing stores, burning vehicles, and attacking law enforcement with incendiaries and stones. In one case, Sputnik even suggested that “pallets of bricks” were being dropped off at protest sites, amplifying a claim that has been thoroughly debunked. The image used shows a neighborhood that bears no resemblance to downtown Los Angeles and is identical to one shared by actor and conservative commentator James Woods, which fact-checkers geolocated to a construction site in New Jersey.

Russian messengers further exploited the events in Los Angeles to attack Democratic leaders and “woke” policy. Russian state media were quick to repeat criticism from members of the Trump administration—including from the president and Vice President JD Vance—accusing Democrats of creating an “an atmosphere of lawlessness and chaos” and defending “foreign flag-waving insurrectionists”. RT specifically blamed the unrest on former US President Joe Biden’s open border policy and derided California Governor Gavin Newsom for suing the Trump administration over its deployment of the National Guard, posing the question: “How bad would it be WITHOUT troops?” Other state-affiliated accounts tried to paint the administration’s crackdown positively, boosting Trump’s claims that he “saved” Los Angeles in the face of its “incompetent mayor and governor”.

Russia-linked influence actors also leveraged conspiracy theories that have gained traction among partisan American audiences to further stoke division. RT and Sputnik echoed claims that protesters were “paid”, feeding conspiracies that philanthropist George Soros was responsible for financing them. Other influence channels went further. The Pravda network published on an English-language website its interview, aimed at Trump supporters, with convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. In it, he claims that the developments in Los Angeles were “planned in advance” to initiate an American Maidan, shorthand for the 2014 protests that led to the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.

Figure 1: Sputnik feeds into the conspiracy that “pallets of bricks” were being dropped off at protest sites.

 

Figure 2: An opinion piece published on RT, blaming Biden specifically and liberals in general for the protests
Figure 3: A Pravda Network article claiming protests were “planned in advance” to create an American Maidan

China

Beijing’s state-affiliated outlets similarly leveraged the unrest in Los Angeles to portray the United States as in turmoil. The outlets amplified images showing “chaos and violence” and spotlighted blunders by law enforcement. This included posting a video of an Australian journalist being struck by rubber bullets while she was reporting. Several outlets quoted Newsom denouncing Trump’s move to deploy the National Guard as “unconstitutional” and “an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism”.

Notably, Chinese influence actors also took advantage of the Trump administration’s crackdown on demonstrators to allege US hypocrisy, particularly in light of the US government’s response to the 2019 Hong Kong protests. CGTN affiliate T-House asked whether the protests were a “beautiful sight”, a mocking reference to then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s comments about the Hong Kong protests. Pro-Beijing commentator Li Jingjing denounced the United States for interfering in other countries and the Global Times announced that Hong Kong authorities have warned their citizens traveling to the United States to be careful “in view of the recently ongoing (…) riots.”

Conclusion

The narratives that Russian and Chinese state-affiliated accounts have promoted during the Los Angeles protests shed light on Moscow and Beijing’s different messaging strategies and goals. Russian state-affiliated accounts largely aligned themselves with the Trump administration, pushing narratives aimed at depicting the protesters as violent and denigrating California’s Democratic leaders to further sow division, in some cases promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories to stoke outrage. Chinese messengers, on the other hand, were less interested in partisan politics and more interested in leveraging the events to undermine the United States’ image on the global stage. This continues a pattern evident during the 2020 George Floyd protests when US adversaries used the unrest as fodder to advance their own strategic objectives.