Meta announced that it has shut down thousands of accounts linked to a Chinese covert influence campaign. According to Meta’s Adversarial Threat Report, this campaign was the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world, spanning over 50 online platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit.
The campaign, which Meta attributed to individuals associated with Chinese law enforcement, involved spreading positive commentary about China and its province Xinjiang, as well as criticizing the United States, Western foreign policies, and Chinese government critics including journalists and researchers.
In total, Meta removed 7,704 Facebook accounts, 954 Facebook pages, and 15 Instagram accounts as part of this China-based campaign targeting audiences in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Japan, Taiwan, and global Chinese-speaking communities.
Despite the campaign’s wide aspirations, Meta found no evidence of substantial engagement from real people on its platforms. Instead, it is believed that the Chinese network used fake content engagement farms in countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil, and Vietnam. Meta noted that the network’s Facebook pages were predominantly followed by accounts from countries outside of its target regions.
In addition to the Chinese operation, Meta also detected a large-scale cross-platform Russian influence campaign that is newly focused on the U.S. Known as Doppelganger, this operation is described as the largest and most persistent covert influence operation from Russia since 2017.
The Russian campaign, while primarily targeting Germany, France, and Ukraine, has recently expanded to include the United States and Israel. The operation spoofed the domains of major U.S. and Israeli news outlets, publishing critical articles about American policies and promoting them across Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
Meta reported that the digital influence operation impersonated Fox News and The Washington Post to post critical commentary on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as President Biden and U.S. policy on Ukraine.
