Five Things We Will Learn
- How foreign intelligence services can use publicly available voter data and commercial data to build detailed targeting profiles.
- Why social media has become a strategic battleground where adversaries seek to influence public opinion and deepen division.
- How disinformation campaigns are designed to exploit existing cultural and political fault lines rather than create new ones.
- What Scripture teaches about repentance, vigilance, prayer, and personal responsibility during times of national uncertainty.
- Practical ways every citizen can become a more discerning consumer of information while remaining faithful to God and engaged in civic responsibility.
China’s 220 Million Voter Records: Your Social Media Feed Is Now a Battlefield
Imagine opening your phone in the morning. You check the latest headlines, watch a few short videos, read comments from people who seem just like your neighbors, and scroll through what appears to be an ordinary social media feed.
What if much of what you are seeing has been carefully designed to influence what you think, what you fear, and even how you view your fellow Americans?
According to intelligence declassified in July 2026, Chinese actors obtained voter registration data covering roughly 220 million Americans beginning around the 2020 election cycle. The information reportedly included names, addresses, party affiliations, and other identifying details gathered from state voter databases and commercial data brokers. U.S. intelligence assessed that the information was primarily used for analysis and influence targeting rather than attempts to alter voting machines or election systems.
The Real Target Wasn’t the Ballot Box
Many people immediately think of hacked voting machines whenever election security is discussed.
But influence operations often pursue something different.
Instead of changing votes after they are cast, adversaries seek to influence how people think before they ever reach the ballot box.
Large voter databases provide an extraordinary amount of information. Combined with commercially available consumer data and activity collected online, they can help build remarkably detailed audience profiles.
Those profiles make it possible to identify communities, interests, concerns, and political leanings with increasing precision.
Your Social Media Feed Is a Modern Battlefield
Every time you open Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or another platform, you enter an environment where competing voices are seeking your attention.
Chinese influence networks, along with other foreign actors, have repeatedly been identified using fake accounts that imitate ordinary Americans. These networks often amplify controversial topics involving race, elections, firearms, foreign conflicts, and other emotionally charged issues.
Their objective is not necessarily to convince everyone of one position.
Often the goal is something much simpler:
Create distrust.
Increase outrage.
Encourage division.
Make Americans believe they can no longer trust one another or the institutions that hold the nation together.
Major social media companies have documented and removed thousands of coordinated influence accounts over the years. Yet these operations continually evolve, adapting their methods and creating new networks after old ones are removed.
The battlefield keeps shifting because the underlying targeting data remains valuable.
Division Is Often More Valuable Than Persuasion
An adversary does not have to convince an entire nation to believe a lie.
Sometimes all they need is to make neighbors suspicious of one another.
A divided nation becomes easier to weaken economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually.
This reality makes discernment more important than ever.
Every article, video, headline, meme, and comment deserves thoughtful evaluation rather than immediate reaction.
A Biblical Response
Scripture reminds us that nations are not beyond God’s authority.
Jeremiah records the Lord saying:
“If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.” (Jeremiah 18:7-8, NIV 1984)
The passage continues by describing the opposite outcome when a nation turns away from what is right (Jeremiah 18:9-10).
The biblical emphasis is not merely on national strength, but on repentance, humility, and obedience before God.
Jesus also instructed His followers:
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” (Matthew 26:41, NIV 1984)
Those words remain relevant in an age where temptation includes deception, manipulation, outrage, and constant information overload.
What Can “We the People” Do?
Real change begins with informed and responsible citizens.
Become educated about your role as “We the People.”
Seek truth carefully rather than accepting every headline or viral post at face value.
Recognize that foreign influence operations often succeed by exploiting our emotional reactions.
Remain vigilant. If social media consistently produces anger, confusion, or constant anxiety, stepping away for a season may be one of the wisest decisions you can make.
Above all, seek God.
Pray for your nation.
Repent where repentance is needed.
Ask God for wisdom and discernment.
Then participate faithfully as an informed citizen by evaluating information carefully, voting thoughtfully, holding public leaders accountable, and encouraging leaders who demonstrate integrity, wisdom, and respect for both God and the Constitution.
The battle for America is not fought only at the ballot box.
Increasingly, it is fought one scroll, one post, one video, and one conversation at a time.
Begin Your Journey Today
Jesus didn’t just call us to believe in Him. He called us to follow Him.
Step into the life He designed for you through Emmaus Road’s The Commands of Jesus. This is more than learning. It’s an invitation to walk with Him, obey Him, and experience Him in a real and powerful way.
You don’t want to miss this journey.
Start today: https://GregLancaster.org/StartHere
Sources
- The White House: Election Integrity and Newly Released Intelligence Documents
The administration’s official presentation of the claim that China acquired approximately 220 million U.S. voter files, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and party preferences. - Office of the Director of National Intelligence: Foreign Threats to the 2020 U.S. Federal Elections
The intelligence community’s declassified assessment of foreign attempts to influence the 2020 election, including its conclusions regarding China’s intentions and activities. - The Wall Street Journal: A Look Inside the Newly Public Election Intelligence Files
An examination of the newly released intelligence records, including reports that Chinese entities collected voter-registration information for analysis and public-opinion tracking. - CBS News: Trump Claimed China Collected 220 Million U.S. Voter Files
Explains the availability of voter-registration information across the states and provides important context concerning what voter-roll data contains and how it may be obtained. - PBS NewsHour: Fact-Checking the Address on China and the 2020 Election
Reviews President Trump’s claims alongside the contents and limitations of the released intelligence documents. - FactCheck.org: Fact-Checking Trump’s Election Security Speech
Examines the 220 million voter-file claim and notes that much state voter-registration information is publicly available or commercially obtainable. - Meta: Quarterly Adversarial Threat Report, Third Quarter 2023
Documents Meta’s removal of 4,789 accounts originating in China that targeted Americans and posed as U.S. users while discussing divisive public issues. - Meta: Adversarial Threat Reporting
Meta’s collection of reports concerning coordinated inauthentic behavior, foreign influence operations, and networks removed from its platforms. - Google Threat Analysis Group: More Than 50,000 Instances of DRAGONBRIDGE Activity Disrupted
Identifies DRAGONBRIDGE, also known as Spamouflage Dragon, as a prolific influence operation linked to China and active across multiple platforms. - Google Threat Analysis Group: New Efforts to Disrupt DRAGONBRIDGE
Describes Google’s continued disruption of a China-linked network producing large volumes of content about the United States and other international issues. - Google Threat Analysis Group: Fourth Quarter 2025 Bulletin
Reports the termination of thousands of YouTube channels connected to coordinated PRC influence operations addressing China and U.S. foreign affairs. - U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: Social Media Influence in U.S. Elections
A congressional hearing examining how foreign actors use social platforms to spread disinformation, deepen discord, and manipulate public discussion.
Scripture References
- Jeremiah 18:7-10
- Matthew 26:41
Important accuracy note: The White House characterizes the matter as China’s “illicit acquisition” of 220 million voter files. Other reporting notes that substantial portions of American voter-registration data are legally available through state requests, purchases, public downloads, or commercial data brokers. The released information does not establish that China altered ballots, vote totals, or election systems.