Meta says it removed Chinese influence operation targeting US midterms though Facebook, Instagram
- Unlike previous operations aimed at sending a ‘US bad, China good’ message to the rest of the world, these fake accounts tried to influence American voters
- The discovery of the propaganda network, also found on Instagram and rival Twitter, suggests a shift towards direct interference in US domestic politics
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 summarising its findings.
Still, the report noted, the discovery was significant because it suggested a shift toward more direct interference in US domestic politics compared to 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.