By The Straits Times | Created at 2024-11-05 13:32:34 | Updated at 2024-11-05 23:10:37
10 hours ago
TOKYO – Twenty websites have been found to be posing as major Japanese news outlets, according to a media investigation.
The Japan News found that the websites have been posting articles from legitimate news outlets without their permission, possibly in violation of Japan’s Copyright and Trademark Laws. The sites all use the same internet service provider (ISP) and some of the text is written in Chinese.
One expert pointed out that the bogus websites might have been systematically created to lay the ground for “influence operations”, which are aimed at causing confusion with false information.
The Japan News conducted the investigation using multiple websites that allow users to check public information, such as ISPs and domain names.
It found 20 websites using names similar to domestic newspaper companies, TV companies, news service agencies and publishers, such as Yomiuri Daily, Asahi Tidings and NHK News. All 10 companies whose names are used by these websites have denied any connection with them.
These websites are updated every day and post articles and photos that were originally published by legitimate news organisations. In some cases, hundreds of articles were posted in a single day. Disinformation or articles degrading Japan have not been found.
Articles on the websites refer to sources and state that they were copied and compiled from other media outlets. But unauthorised reproduction is a violation of Japan’s copyright law, and using other companies’ names may infringe on the country’s trademark law.
The 20 websites are believed to use the same ISP based in Singapore and most of their domain names were registered on either March 6, 2023, Jan 18, 2024, or April 12, 2024. The websites’ IP addresses, which are a string of numbers that correspond to a specific device’s online address, were also close to each other.
These sites were likely to have been created using the same template.
Advertisements do not appear on these sites, and Chinese is used in certain parts of the source codes. Some categories were also written in Chinese. For example, the category for sports was written in Chinese characters.
In November 2023, Seoul busted 38 websites posing as South Korean media outlets and disclosed the names of the companies operating these sites, including a public relations company in Shenzhen, China. All 38 websites were found to have been carrying pro-China messages.
The Citizen Lab, a research institute in Canada, reported in February that it had confirmed the websites posing as local media outlets spread pro-China information in 30 countries, including the US and countries in Europe and Asia.
“It’s obvious that these sites were established in a systematic way,” said Mr Hiroki Iwai, a security expert who is familiar with online manipulation of public opinions.
“People may mistake them for legitimate media outlets. If these websites disseminate disinformation during contingencies, it will pose a threat to society.”
As the dissemination of disinformation has not been confirmed yet, Mr Jun Osawa, senior fellow at Sasakawa Peace Foundation who is familiar with cyber-security issues, said: “They may be at the stage of preparing for operations that take advantage of the credibility of major media outlets.” THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
