Meta removes two networks with fake Chinese and Russian accounts

Meta claims to have removed two networks from its platforms. They consisted of Chinese and Russian fake accounts. Meta does not say exactly how big the networks were. According to the company, the networks were not connected.

Meta gives in a blog post more information about the networks. The first network the company mentions comes from China and was active on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and two Czech petition platforms. The network mainly targeted users in the United States and the Czech Republic, but to a lesser extent also Chinese and French-speaking users.

In the United States, the network focused on people on both sides of the political spectrum. The accounts mainly wrote about domestic politics in the US. In the Czech Republic, the network mainly spread messages that are against the government of the country. Among other things, the fake accounts have criticized Czech support for Ukraine in the war with Russia and its impact on the Czech economy. The reports also warned against obstructing China.

The second network was ‘large’ and came from Russia, says Meta. It mainly targeted German users, but also users in Italy, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The network has been sharing stories about the war in Ukraine since early May. In addition, the network consisted of more than sixty websites that pretended to be real news organizations. These included Der Spiegel and The Guardian. Those sites featured articles criticizing Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees, supporting Russia and arguing that Western sanctions against Russia would backfire. The articles were also shared on the Facebook pages of Russian embassies in Europe and Asia, Meta reports. Some sites had content in multiple languages.

“We began our investigation after reviewing some of these activities reported by investigative journalists in Germany,” Meta writes. “The researchers from the Digital Forensics Research Lab also provided insight into some of this network, and we shared our findings with them to enable further investigation into the broader operation.” According to Meta, the network was “the largest and most complex operation of Russian origin that we have disrupted since the beginning of the war in Ukraine”.