Meta says Chinese, Russian influence operations are among the biggest it's taken down

And they need to do a whole lot more

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Facebook parent Meta says Chinese law enforcement is behind the largest covert online influence operation the company has ever disrupted.

The operation spread pro-China messages and attacked critics of Beijing's policies, using a sprawling network of fake accounts across more than 50 websites, from Facebook and Instagram to YouTube, Twitter (now known as X), TikTok, Reddit, and dozens of smaller platforms and forums.

The fake accounts posted links to articles praising China and denigrating U.S. and European foreign policy, as well as seemingly personal comments that appear to be copied and pasted from a numbered list, resulting in hundreds of identical posts.

"They were really trying to spread their way across the internet and to try to spread their message across the internet," said Ben Nimmo, Meta's global threat intelligence lead.

Despite the network's scale, Meta said it had failed to gain a large following of real people on its platforms or elsewhere online, and few authentic accounts interacted with its content."...

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel Thanks for the good share.

A wife who is fluent in Chinese is probably an asset for Zuck. Good for them for making the information public.

"It really is all one operation," Nimmo said. "And for the first time, not only have we been able to tie all this activity together, but we've been able to link it to individuals who are associated with Chinese law enforcement."

I have definitely noticed strange responses to some discussions that turn into bitter tirads about our government, for year, when the topic is totally unrelated - more Russian than Chinese. They are relatively obvious. I am sure I have numerous fake account FB friends, and have always known that. They ordinarily NEVER comment about anything on anyone's FB postings (but then never do the relatives, lol). Social media websites have probably been a haven for "influencer" spy networks and "quiet surveillance" spy networks, since they started, by creating fake profiles. Bet they had a heyday with the covid confusion and contributing to it. Wonder if they were as thrilled about our typical American approach to the clean-up, questioning, and open discussion after "the end" was announced? I also have numerous FB friends from playing a few games years ago on FB - little or no interaction - and an easy way gain access to what people post only for friends when game playing depends on helping one another succeed.

My attention has been drawn to Russian websites which are easy to spot. The Chinese ones, not as easy (for me). Whether identifiable websites are from individuals, or organized and connected (in collusion pushing a specific agenda) is something I often wonder too. Good for META that it investigated. (Maybe in agreement and cooperation with our government and help from it?)

The misuse of English words and sentence structure is not the same in Russian and Chinese websites not identified as such, when they not are not professionally created. Even so, if they are, the focus, topics of focus, and ways they are presented can be revealing.

I also wonder about the agenda of nearly all websites that do not identify who the people are that are the legal entity the website represents.