Meta disrupted a gigantic Chinese online influence operation, the tech giant said in its “quarterly adversarial threat report” on Tuesday.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, eliminated thousands of pages and accounts that were involved in the largest ever multi-platform influence campaign, the company stated. Individuals in China, including Chinese law enforcement officials, ran the operation spanning dozens of platforms and forums, spreading positive Chinese propaganda and criticisms of the U.S.
Meta took down “7,704 Facebook accounts, 954 Pages, 15 Groups and 15 Instagram accounts,” that were a part of the Chinese operation, it stated.
The campaign “appears to be the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world,” Meta asserted. “It was active on more than 50 platforms and forums, including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, Medium, Blogspot, LiveJournal, VKontakte, Vimeo, and dozens of smaller platforms and forums.”
The operation “included positive commentary about China and its province Xinjiang and criticisms of the United States, Western foreign policies, and critics of the Chinese government including journalists and researchers,” Meta added.
Xinjiang is a Chinese province, where genocide has been committed against the Uyghurs and other minority groups, according to the U.S. State Department. (RELATED: Biden’s Commerce Secretary Doesn’t Even Plan To Bring Up CCP-Linked TikTok On China Trip: REPORT )
BREAKING: Meta Uncovers Global Chinese Disinformation Campaign | Involves X/Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Medium & Tumblr.
Meta uncovered a large Chinese disinformation campaign, calling it the “largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world.”
The network… pic.twitter.com/jWvylau4MC
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 29, 2023
TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance has allegedly employees in China that use a moderation system consisting of word lists intended to identify or limit content related to topics such as former President Donald Trump and the Uyghurs, according to Forbes.
A Shanghai-based media company, Haixun Press, posted articles on more than 32 American news websites to promote China, according to a July report by cybersecurity firm Mandiant.
Meta did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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