Meta shuts down thousands of fake China-based Facebook accounts aimed at influencing voters before 2024

Facebook parent company Meta took down thousands of fake accounts based in China that were designed to influence American voters ahead of the 2024 election, according to a report released Thursday.

Meta removed nearly 5,000 Facebook profiles in China that impersonated Americans and posted content related to US politics and relations with China. seconds in its third-quarter “Adverse Threat Report.” Goal it previously disrupted the largest-ever cross-platform influence campaign in August, which involved Chinese law enforcement officials spreading positive Chinese propaganda and criticism of the US.

new @Meta The Adversary Threat Report details the threat landscape for 2024. We're not surprised to see the most prolific players: Russia, Iran and China.

More information about the report in this thread 🧵 pic.twitter.com/aUX3OXtZvs

— Benjamin Strick (@BenDoBrown) November 30, 2023

“We have taken down 4,789 Facebook accounts in China that targeted the United States and impersonated Americans through various platforms to post about US policy and US-China relations” , says the new report. “We removed this network before it could get real community engagement in our apps.”

These fake accounts posted content from both Democratic and Republican users on X, formerly Twitter, for unknown reasons, but one of Meta's theories is that it was to exacerbate political divisions, according to the report.

“The larger of the two operations we included in this third quarter threat report focused on domestic politics in the United States. Their fake Facebook accounts copied and pasted posts from US politicians from both sides of the aisle at X (formerly Twitter), including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Govs. Gretchen Whitmer and Kristi Noem, Gov. Ron DeSantis' “war room,” Sens. Mark Kelly and Marsha Blackburn, and the representatives Sylvia Garcia, Terri Sewell, Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan. It is unclear whether this approach was designed to amplify partisan tensions, create audiences among those politicians' supporters, or to make fake accounts sharing authentic content appear more genuine”.

Aligned with China Cyber ​​influence operations have begun targeting certain U.S. political candidates, as well as impersonating American voters with differing political views. seconds to a report that Microsoft published in September.

“In general, these networks have continued to struggle to build audiences and move to smaller platforms, but they are a warning: foreign threat actors are trying to reach audiences ahead of various elections next year, including in the US and Europe , and we need to stay alert to their evolving tactics and Internet targeting,” Meta's report says.

Meta and Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Latest messages from Jason Cohen (see everything)

We have zero tolerance for comments that contain violence, racism, profanity, profanity, doxing, or rude behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it, click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for engaging with us in a fruitful conversation.

JOIN OUR NEW COMMENT SYSTEM! We love hearing from our readers and invite you to join us for feedback and good conversation. If you've commented with us before, we'll need you to re-enter your email address for this. The public won't see it and we won't share it.