Meta took down a network of fake accounts posing as U.S. military families and anti-war activists. The fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram originated in China and targeted American audiences, according to the company's security researchers.
Meta detailed the takedowns in its latest Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB) report. The group of fake accounts was relatively small: 33 Facebook accounts, four Instagram profiles, six pages and six groups on Facebook. The published accounts concern U.S. aircraft carriers and other “military themes,” as well as “criticism of U.S. foreign policy toward Taiwan and Israel and its support for Ukraine,” Meta wrote in his report.
The group also ran accounts on YouTube and Medium and shared an online petition “claiming to have been written by Americans to criticize U.S. support for Taiwan.” Company researchers said the fake accounts originated in China, but did not attribute the effort to any specific entity or group. In a call with reporters, Ben Nimmo, global head of threat intelligence at Meta, said there has been an increase in China-based influence operations over the last year.
“The biggest change in the threat landscape,” Nimmo said, “has been the emergence of Chinese influence operations.” Nimmo said. He noted that Meta has taken down 10 CIB networks originating in China since 2017, but that six of those takedowns took place last year. Last summer, Meta discovered and took down a particularly large network fake accounts that attempted to spread pro-Chinese propaganda messages on the platform.
In both cases, the fake accounts apparently failed to spread their message. The latest network only managed to reach about 3,000 Facebook accounts, according to Meta, and both Instagram pages had no followers at the time of their discovery.
Nonetheless, Meta researchers note that such attempts will likely continue ahead of the 2024 elections and that people with large audiences should be wary of sharing unverified information. “Our threat research shows that, historically, the primary way CIB networks are able to reach authentic communities is when they manage to co-opt real people – politicians, journalists or influencers – and exploit their audiences ”, says the report. “Reputable opinion makers represent an attractive target and should exercise caution before amplifying information from unverified sources, particularly in the run-up to major elections. »