Meta details influence operations from Russia, impersonating news outlets to spread anti-Ukraine content in Europe, and from China, targeting the US and Czechia
complete with real reporters' bylines and photos — and promoted them using fake accounts to smear Ukraine, according to a new report by Meta https://www.protocol.com/... Donie O'Sullivan / @donie : NEW: Meta shutting down accounts from Russia and China. — Chinese accounts targeting US. Tiny number and had no impact but Metasays it's flagging because it's on “high alert” ahead of midterms. — Russian accounts part of sophisticated network. https://www.cnn.com/... Kevin Beaumont / @gossithedog : An interesting thing about some of the recently disclosed influence operations is how bad they are at being effective. Taxpayers should get a refund - the Elon Musk crypto scams are better. https://t.co/e8mGOJ1l3j Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : This shift in PRC tactics is fascinating, and not a great sign for 2024 being an election bereft of foreign influence campaigns. https://twitter.com/... Andy Stone / @andymstone : Read more about our efforts to disrupt a Chinese influence operation focused on US domestic politics ahead off the midterms and an unconnected Russian operation focused on the war in Ukraine. https://twitter.com/... @nicoleperlroth : Facebook says it has taken down the largest and most complex Russian disinformation network since the start of the war and a smaller Chinese network that has borrowed its tricks. https://about.fb.com/... Steven Lee Myers / @stevenleemyers : Was China dipping its toe into election interference ahead of the midterm elections in November? Meta announced today that it took down a covert campaign in which people in China pretended to be outraged Republicans and Democrats. https://www.nytimes.com/... Fabio Chiusi / @fabiochiusi : “The sites, which primarily targeted users in Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine and the U.K., were meticulous imitations of the real thing, borrowing not just the format and design of the actual news sites, but in some cases the photos and bylines of real reporters” https://twitter.com/... @dfrlab : @facebook @Meta .@Meta concluded the network originated from #Russia. @DFRLab noticed several indicators of previous Russian influence ops including the amplification of pro-Kremlin narratives, paid promotion, inaccurate and non-native grammar; impersonating real people/institutions, and more. @dfrlab : After @DFRLab discovered a small inauthentic network on @Facebook promoting posts critical of Western sanctions against #Russia, an independent @Meta investigation revealed a larger network of 2300+ assets promoting Kremlin interests across Europe. 🧵⬇️ https://medium.com/... @disinfoeu : #DOPPELGANGER: How Russia-based actors cloned legitimate media outlets from multiple countries (🇩🇪🇬🇧 🇫🇷🇮🇹 🇱🇻🇺🇦) to spread disinformation designed to undermine the support for Ukraine. Our last investigation: https://www.doppelganger.ltd/ Chris Roper / @chrisroper : “The Chinese-origin influence operation ran across multiple social media platforms, and was the first one to target US domestic politics ahead of the 2022 midterms” https://twitter.com/... Jen Dudley-Nicholson / @jendudley : “This is the largest and most complex Russian-origin operation that we've disrupted since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.” https://twitter.com/... Jane Manchun Wong / @wongmjane : I wouldn't be able to tell these are from state-run influence campaigns tbh. Seems like the kind of replies you'd come across on Twitter regularly from Meta's CIB Report: https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Katie Notopoulos / @katienotopoulos : [Me, a tech reporter]: Chinese misinfo networks on FB? Bad! Awful! [Me, also a union steward]: substantial lunch breaks? 9-5 and weekends off? Good for these work/life balance icons https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/... Sergiu Gatlan / @serghei : Meta takes down a large Russian disinformation network of 60 websites “impersonating legitimate websites of news organizations in Europe, including Spiegel, The Guardian and Bild.” https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/... Ben Nimmo / @benimmo : @Meta The operations were very different, but both worked on multiple social media platforms and petitions sites. The Russian op was even on LiveJournal (cute). List of domains, petitions etc in the report. #OSINT community, happy hunting! Ben Nimmo / @benimmo : @Meta China: this was the first Chinese network we've disrupted that focused on US domestic politics ahead of the midterms and Czech foreign policy toward China and Ukraine. It was small, we took it down before it built an audience, but that's a new direction for Chinese IO. Steve Herman / @w7voa : About 1,600 fake @facebook accounts used to spread #Russia propaganda about #Ukraine have been removed, according to @Meta. https://about.fb.com/... @ivanthek : Based on my earlier observation this morning, I'd guess that Twitter is doing the same thing. https://twitter.com/... Donie O'Sullivan / @donie : Important to note: Meta not attributing either campaign to specific entities within China or Russia, or to the Chinese and Russian governments, instead saying only the accounts that were part of the campaigns were run out of the respective countries. David Clinch / @davidclinchnews : Update on harmful misinformation from Facebook https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
🚨BREAKING🚨 @Meta took down two covert influence ops: Big one from Russia🇷🇺 targeting Europe with spoofed media websites like the Guardian and Spiegel First one from China 🇨🇳 to focus on both sides of domestic US 🇺🇸 politics and Czech-China relations. https://about.fb.com/...
1/ We just released a report on two covert influence operations from Russia and China that targeted people in Europe around Russia's war in Ukraine and people in the U.S. ahead of the midterms across a number of social media and spoofed media websites 🧵 https://t.co/o8HSoqLKWI
NEW: Russia built a sprawling network of websites meticulously impersonating mainstream media, like The Guardian — complete with real reporters' bylines and photos — and promoted them using fake accounts to smear Ukraine, according to a new report by Meta https://www.protocol.com…
Here we go again- first it was Russians, now it's Chinese hackers supporting Republicans in our elections. Why don't they just worry about their own elections? No, wait, they don't ...... https://www.nytimes.com/...
They are coming for your emotions. I am once again reminding you that if your news “feels good” to your preconceived beliefs, do a little deeper dive. https://twitter.com/...
China either does not know how to run a covert influence campaign or they aren't trying. That is my read from Facebook's latest disclosure. But the biggest news is that China is now embarking on a new campaign promoting American discord. 🧵 https://about.fb.com/...
Russia at least has the motive: Trump is nicer than Hillary to Moscow. I don't get China's motive, in the eyes of the Chinese, the democrats are hypocritical and bad and the republicans are hypothetical and bad https://twitter.com/...
In the past 24 hours I got 50 new followers and lost 16. 15 out of the 16 are no longer on Twitter (3 of them have been suspended.) Twitter seems to stepping up bad account extermination. However, it still seems like the crypto bots are winning.
Reminder that Meta / Facebook literally takes directions from the Atlantic Council, a joint US/UK/NATO intelligence project, about what to allow on its platform https://www.cnn.com/...
@Meta When these networks are taken in combination with the attempted use of OSINT-style ‘debunking’ about events like Bucha by pro-Russian ‘fact checking’ sites - it could create an illusion of truth to those susceptible to it. That's the danger. https://twitter.com/...
NEW: Meta shutting down accounts from Russia and China. — Chinese accounts targeting US. Tiny number and had no impact but Metasays it's flagging because it's on “high alert” ahead of midterms. — Russian accounts part of sophisticated network. https://www.cnn.com/...
An interesting thing about some of the recently disclosed influence operations is how bad they are at being effective. Taxpayers should get a refund - the Elon Musk crypto scams are better. https://t.co/e8mGOJ1l3j
This shift in PRC tactics is fascinating, and not a great sign for 2024 being an election bereft of foreign influence campaigns. https://twitter.com/...
Read more about our efforts to disrupt a Chinese influence operation focused on US domestic politics ahead off the midterms and an unconnected Russian operation focused on the war in Ukraine. https://twitter.com/...
Facebook says it has taken down the largest and most complex Russian disinformation network since the start of the war and a smaller Chinese network that has borrowed its tricks. https://about.fb.com/...
Was China dipping its toe into election interference ahead of the midterm elections in November? Meta announced today that it took down a covert campaign in which people in China pretended to be outraged Republicans and Democrats. https://www.nytimes.com/...
“The sites, which primarily targeted users in Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine and the U.K., were meticulous imitations of the real thing, borrowing not just the format and design of the actual news sites, but in some cases the photos and bylines of real reporters” https://twitter…
@facebook @Meta .@Meta concluded the network originated from #Russia. @DFRLab noticed several indicators of previous Russian influence ops including the amplification of pro-Kremlin narratives, paid promotion, inaccurate and non-native grammar; impersonating real people/instituti…
After @DFRLab discovered a small inauthentic network on @Facebook promoting posts critical of Western sanctions against #Russia, an independent @Meta investigation revealed a larger network of 2300+ assets promoting Kremlin interests across Europe. 🧵⬇️ https://medium.com/...
#DOPPELGANGER: How Russia-based actors cloned legitimate media outlets from multiple countries (🇩🇪🇬🇧 🇫🇷🇮🇹 🇱🇻🇺🇦) to spread disinformation designed to undermine the support for Ukraine. Our last investigation: https://www.doppelganger.ltd/
“The Chinese-origin influence operation ran across multiple social media platforms, and was the first one to target US domestic politics ahead of the 2022 midterms” https://twitter.com/...
“This is the largest and most complex Russian-origin operation that we've disrupted since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.” https://twitter.com/...
I wouldn't be able to tell these are from state-run influence campaigns tbh. Seems like the kind of replies you'd come across on Twitter regularly from Meta's CIB Report: https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
[Me, a tech reporter]: Chinese misinfo networks on FB? Bad! Awful! [Me, also a union steward]: substantial lunch breaks? 9-5 and weekends off? Good for these work/life balance icons https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Meta takes down a large Russian disinformation network of 60 websites “impersonating legitimate websites of news organizations in Europe, including Spiegel, The Guardian and Bild.” https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@Meta The operations were very different, but both worked on multiple social media platforms and petitions sites. The Russian op was even on LiveJournal (cute). List of domains, petitions etc in the report. #OSINT community, happy hunting!
@Meta China: this was the first Chinese network we've disrupted that focused on US domestic politics ahead of the midterms and Czech foreign policy toward China and Ukraine. It was small, we took it down before it built an audience, but that's a new direction for Chinese IO.
Important to note: Meta not attributing either campaign to specific entities within China or Russia, or to the Chinese and Russian governments, instead saying only the accounts that were part of the campaigns were run out of the respective countries.