Meta took down thousands of Facebook accounts based in China that were pretending to be Americans while posting on political issues like abortion and health care, the tech giant said Thursday, while also warning that “foreign threat actors are attempting to reach audiences” online ahead of the 2024 US election.
The fake Facebook profiles recreated word for word, social media posts from Republicans such as presidential rivals and governor of Florida Ron DeSantis and Democrats such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Meta did not tie the network of phoney Facebook accounts to a specific company in China.
It’s the latest in an ongoing series of warnings from internet companies showing how Chinese propaganda and influence operations have become more violently targeting American audiences in the last year.
It comes as US authorities prepare for a tense and controversial presidential election in 2024, in which the majority of the people might question the results, and foreign powers — such as China, Russia, and Iran — may try to influence voters and create doubt about the voting process.
A Gap in Oversight
The news comes as US national security government officials have paused their efforts to identify suspected foreign influence operations on social media platforms in the face of a court challenge from Republican lawyers general.
Meta officials stated that US government agencies have not provided evidence of foreign election influence with the platform since July when Republicans launched the legal challenge. The US Supreme Court intends to hear the case.
Before the court case, Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s chief of security policy, told reporters that “there have been several times when a tip from the government has enabled us to take action… quickly” against covert foreign influence activities.
Is This a New Era of Misinformation?
Russia’s massive attempt to meddle in the 2016 US elections revealed how robots and trolls may be used to increase differences among Americans.
According to experts and US officials, China has generally avoided such obvious and dividing participation methods. However, there is some evidence that things may be changing ahead of the election next year.
Suspected Chinese operators have also utilised artificial intelligence-generated photos of the Statue of Liberty and the Black Lives Matter movement to spread misinformation, according to Microsoft experts in a September investigation.
According to a recent CNN review of court documents and public statements by social media companies, the Chinese government has also built the world’s largest known fake news operation and is using it to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses, at times threatening its targets with violence.
China regularly argued that troll farms exist on its borders.
“Some people and institutions have launched one ‘rumour operation’ after another against China on social media platforms, spreading an incredible amount of misinformation about China,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, in a statement when CNN asked for comment.
While Meta and other digital companies increase their efforts to safeguard elections, recent steps by the company reveal behaviours in the opposite direction.
According to CNN, some members of Meta’s team who questioned misinformation and fraud during the 2022 US midterm elections have been laid off. And, earlier this month, Meta said that it would allow campaigns on its platforms to cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.
Marrium Akhtar
December 1, 2023
5 months ago
