Security News > 2023 > September > Meta Takes Down Thousands of Accounts Involved in Disinformation Ops from China and Russia

Meta has disclosed that it disrupted two of the largest known covert influence operations in the world from China and Russia, blocking thousands of accounts and pages across its platform.

The network, which included 7,704 Facebook accounts, 954 Pages, 15 Groups and 15 Instagram accounts, is said to have been run by "Geographically dispersed operators" across China, posting content about China and its province Xinjiang, criticism of the U.S, Western foreign policies, and critics of the Chinese government.

"Many comments on Spamouflage posts that we have observed came from other Spamouflage accounts trying to make it look like they were more popular than they were," Meta said.

In response to the findings, China said "Some people and institutions have launched one 'rumor campaign' after another against China on social media platforms and spread a tremendous amount of disinformation about China." It also called on Meta to "Take concrete steps to weed out disinformation on China."

The social media giant said it also blocked thousands of malicious website domains as well as attempts to run fake accounts and Pages on its platforms connected to the Russian operation known as Doppelganger, which has been attributed to two companies named Structura National Technologies and Social Design Agency.

Meta characterized Doppelganger as the "Largest and the most aggressively-persistent Russian-origin operation" it has dismantled since 2017, adding it also removed networks of accounts that targeted audiences in Turkey.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/09/meta-takes-down-thousands-of-accounts.html