Meta Removes Fake Accounts Tied to Pro-US Influence Campaign
A covert online persuasion campaign to cast the US and its allies in a positive light in the Middle East and Central Asia -- as well as to bash its adversaries -- was disrupted by Meta Platforms Inc. and Twitter Inc., which have removed the “inauthentic” accounts from their platforms, according to internet researchers.
The campaign resembled previous online campaigns by US adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran in its use of fake personas and bogus media outlets, among other tactics. The US has criticized those countries for using online campaigns to spread false information.
The fake accounts were on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and five other social-media platforms, according to a report published Wednesday by the social media analytics company Graphika Inc. and Stanford University's Internet Observatory Cyber Policy Center, which analyzed a portion of the activity. The accounts in question used deceptive tactics to promote pro-US stories and to air negative narratives about Russia and other countries, according to the report.
The researchers didn't attribute the campaign to a specific group or organization. However, the report notes there were limited instances of the fake accounts sharing information from an overt US messaging campaign and one Twitter account that posed as a man in Iraq; the account had previously claimed to operate on behalf of the US military.
The activity reviewed by the researchers includes what appears to be a series of covert campaigns, as opposed to one operation, that spanned almost five years.
The social media campaigns heavily criticized Russia for the deaths of innocent civilians and other alleged atrocities following its invasion of Ukraine in February, according to the report. They also
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