New details on a vast effort that may be only the beginning of China's information-warfare ambitions
sprawling network of fake accounts linked to Chinese law enforcement was taken down by Meta this week in what the social-media company called “the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world.”it removed 7,704 accounts, 954 pages, and 15 groups linked to the effort to push pro-China talking points and attack the government’s critics. But its fingerprints extended beyond Facebook and Instagram, the platforms owned by Meta.
The company, which is usually cautious when linking such networks to state actors, says it determined that the operation was connected to individuals associated with Chinese law enforcement. “For the first time, we were able to tie this activity together to confirm it was part of one operation,” Meta's chief information security officer, Guy Rosen, wrote in a post introducing the report on Tuesday.
The operation, which originated in China, targeted audiences in countries including Taiwan, the U.S., Australia, the U.K., and Japan, as well as Chinese-speaking audiences elsewhere. But despite the covert network’s large size, few posts seem to have gained much traction, garnering little interaction from real users, and relying on inauthentic followers from fake engagement farms in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Brazil, according to Meta researchers.
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