Targets Impact of US Midterm Elections and Ukraine War... Meta Deletes Fake Accounts from China and Russia

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] China and Russia were caught attempting to interfere in U.S. politics through fake accounts on social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook and Instagram. Meta, the parent company of these services, announced on the 27th (local time) that it had deleted the fake accounts.

According to Bloomberg News and others, Meta announced in a statement on the same day that it took these measures ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November. On Facebook, 81 fake Chinese accounts, 8 pages for promotion, and 1 group were identified, while more than 60 accounts linked to the Russian network were discovered.

According to the announcement, the Chinese fake accounts operated from last fall until mid-September this year, targeting users worldwide who speak Chinese and French, including those in the U.S. and the Czech Republic. Meta described this as "the first Chinese network focused on U.S. domestic politics ahead of the midterm elections," noting a difference from previous Chinese fake accounts that delivered messages criticizing the U.S. to global users.

However, unlike Russia, which has conducted sophisticated influence operations targeting U.S. internet users since the 2016 presidential election, many of the Chinese fake accounts were of lower quality. It was also observed that the fake accounts were active from morning to afternoon in China local time and ceased activity simultaneously during lunch hours according to Chinese time.

Ben Nimmo, Meta's Global Threat Intelligence Lead, pointed out, "The fact that China has started to imitate Americans and speak to Americans itself is a significant change," adding, "It could be a new direction in China's influence operation strategy."

Meta also revealed that a large-scale fake news network based in Russia was created by imitating European media outlets and operated targeting Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Ukraine, and others. These fake accounts emphasized creating a pro-Russian public opinion by defending Russia's invasion of Ukraine and criticizing Ukrainian refugees. Meta explained, "This is the largest and most sophisticated network operated by Russia detected since the outbreak of the Ukraine war."

Meta has been regularly cracking down on fake accounts since it was revealed that Russia manipulated public opinion through fake Facebook accounts during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.