2023-08-29 16:47:30
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced on Tuesday August 29 that it had deleted thousands of accounts on the social network that were part of a major Chinese propaganda operation online.
The campaign would have been active on more than fifty platforms and forums, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube and Twitter (renamed X), according to a report published by Meta.
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A network of influence, but little audience
“We consider this to be the largest – albeit ineffective – and prolific influence operation we have seen to date,” said Ben Nimmo, the head of the US giant’s global threat intelligence division. More than 7,700 Facebook accounts and about 15 Instagram accounts are affected, making it the largest account deletion action, Meta said.
The Meta teams have been “capable of tracing people associated with Chinese law enforcement”, said Ben Nimmo. The group’s security teams were able to determine that the accounts were linked to a series of spam activities (unsolicited messages) that had occurred since 2019 and were stopped by Meta. “For the first time, we have been able to link these series and confirm that they are part of the same operation”he added.
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The updated network regularly posted positive comments about China and the province of Xinjiang, where the Uyghur minority is located, while criticizing the United States, the foreign policies of Western countries, and those criticizing the Chinese government. “including journalists and researchers”according to the report.
The network was based in China and particularly targeted Taiwan, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Japan, as well as the Chinese-speaking audience abroad.
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The accounts and pages concerned were removed for non-compliance with the terms of use of the group’s platforms but appeared to have little audience, with comments mostly reporting false allegations.
The accounts were linked to different locations in China, with a pace of activity that seemed to correspond to office hours.
Operation “Doppelgänger”
Some of the tactics employed were similar to those of an updated Russian network in 2019, seeming to underscore that these operations learn from each other, according to Ben Nimmo.
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The Meta report also analyzed a campaign called ” Doppelgänger », discovered a year ago by his teams. The heart of the operation consisted in making copies, « doppelgänger » in English, websites copying those of the major media in Europe. The goal was to publish fake news about the war in Ukraine and then spread it online, Meta security policy manager Nathaniel Gleicher said.
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The companies involved in this campaign, which initially mainly targeted Germany, France and Ukraine, before the United States and Israel, were recently sanctioned by the European Union. “We were able to block their operational resources on our platforms but the sites continue to be active”and alerted M. Gleicher.
This is, he said, the largest and most advanced influence operation by Russia since 2017.
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