Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced on Tuesday that it has removed thousands of accounts linked to Chinese security forces in what could be the biggest covert social media influence operation in the world.
The campaign promoted “positive information” about China and Xinjiang province, whose government is accused of human rights abuses and forced labor by members of the Uighur ethnic minority.
According to the Meta, other deleted accounts contained articles critical of US and Western foreign policy, as well as attacks on journalists and researchers who were perceived to be critical of the Chinese government.
The accounts shared similar content on several platforms with misleading headlines such as: “US bombing of Nord Stream is the first step in the ‘European plan of annihilation’.”
In total, Meta deleted 7,704 accounts, 954 pages (other types of accounts) and 15 Facebook groups, and closed 15 Instagram accounts.
“These (advertising) operations are massive, but they are crude, and we don’t see any real indication that they are building an authentic audience on our platform or anywhere else online,” Meta’s head of global threat intelligence told CNBC. Ben Nimo.
According to Meta, the network has been or is present in almost all social networks such as Medium, Reddit, Tumblr, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) and others.
While this is the largest disinformation campaign, it is not the only one pointed out by the Meta in today’s report, as it has also deleted dozens of accounts associated with other clandestine campaigns that targeted Turkey and violated its policies.