Facebook parent company Meta announced Tuesday that it had identified and shut down two separate networks of fake accounts involved in covert influence operations from China and Russia.
The Chinese network was small and didn't get much attention, but it included some accounts posing as Americans on both sides of the political spectrum, according to a Meta report released Tuesday. Meta made the public announcement of the removal as it remains on high alert for foreign interference in the U.S. midterm elections, a Meta spokesperson told CNN. Ben Nimmo, Meta's head of global threat intelligence, told CNN that it was the first time the company had seen Chinese accounts targeting Americans in this way. "They were running fake accounts that were impersonating Americans and trying to talk like Americans and talking about really divisive issues like abortion and gun control," he said.
The company shared details of the Chinese accounts with the FBI, a Meta spokesperson said.
The Russian campaign, on the other hand, was massive. It promoted pro-Kremlin views on the war in Ukraine, included thousands of accounts and pages on multiple social media platforms, and spent more than $100,000 on ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta did not attribute any campaigns to specific entities within China or Russia, nor to the Chinese and Russian governments, but said only that the accounts were part of campaigns originating from those countries.
Russia and Ukraine
Meta said the network of Russian accounts it had taken down was the “largest and most complex Russian operation we have disrupted since the start of the war in Ukraine as it involved an extensive network of over 60 websites impersonating news organizations, as well as accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram, Twitter” and other sites, according to the report.
More than 2,000 Facebook accounts and pages were part of the effort to promote pro-Kremlin views on the war in Ukraine, Meta said. More than $100,000 was spent on ads on Facebook and Instagram as part of the campaign.
The operation included websites designed to mimic real Western news outlets, including The Guardian. According to a list of website addresses included in the Meta report, the Russian campaign also included fake sites designed to look like the Daily Mail, Bild and Der Spiegel.
Chinese accounts
The Chinese effort involved only 80 Facebook accounts. Meta said the accounts were primarily targeting audiences in the United States and the Czech Republic, but were posted during business hours in Beijing.
Some of the accounts posed as conservative Americans, while others as liberals living in Florida, Texas and California, according to the company.
The accounts posted comments on some American news outlets that appeared to be designed to spark debate online.
Despite its minimal online presence, Meta noted the network’s importance in its report. “This was the first Chinese network we disrupted that focused on domestic US politics ahead of the midterm elections,” the company said.
Source of information: edition.cnn.com
