Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it disrupted the first known China-based influence operation focused on targeting users in the United States with political content ahead of the midterm elections in November.
The network maintained fake accounts across Meta's social
media platforms Facebook and Instagram, as well as competitor service Twitter,
but was small and did not attract much of a following, Meta said in a report
summarizing its findings.
Still, the report noted, the discovery was significant
because it suggested a shift toward more direct interference in U.S. domestic
politics compared with previous known Chinese propaganda efforts.
"The Chinese operations we've taken down before talked
primarily about America to the world, primarily in South Asia, not to Americans
about themselves," Meta global threat intelligence lead Ben Nimmo told a
press briefing.
"Essentially the message was 'America bad, China
good,'" he said of those operations, while the new operation pushed
messages aimed at Americans on both sides of divisive issues like abortion and
gun rights.
Another Meta executive at the briefing said the company did
not have enough evidence to say who was behind the activity in China.
Asked about Meta's findings at a news conference, U.S.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said his office was "very concerned"
about intelligence reports of election interference by foreign governments
"starting back some time ago and continuing all the way into the
present."
A Twitter spokesperson said the company was aware of the
information in Meta's report and also took down the accounts.
According to Meta's report, the Chinese fake accounts posed
as liberal and conservative Americans in different states. They posted
political memes and lurked in the comments of public figures' posts since
November 2021.
A sample screenshot showed one account commenting on a
Facebook post by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, asking him to stop gun
violence and using the hashtag #RubioChildrenKiller.
The same network also set up fake accounts that posed as
people in the Czech Republic criticizing the Czech government over its approach
to China, according to the report.
Meta also said it had intercepted the largest and most
complex Russian-based operation since the war in Ukraine began, describing it
as a sprawling network of more than 60 websites impersonating legitimate news
organizations, along with about 4,000 social media accounts and petitions on
sites like U.S.-based campaign group Avaaz.
That operation primarily targeted users in Germany, as well
as France, Italy, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, and spent more than $100,000
on ads promoting pro-Russian messages.
On a few occasions, Russian embassies in Europe and Asia
amplified the content.
The Russian embassy in Washington said Meta's move follows
"the instructions of the U.S. authorities" and is a violation of
freedom of speech.
"This suggests that American tech giants, who own the
most popular Internet resources, have become servants of the U.S.
administration's policy of suppressing dissent," the embassy said on its
Telegram channel.
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