Social media giant Meta, the parent company of Facebook,
has removed “thousands” of fake accounts that are seen as covert Chinese operations seeking to influence the 2024 U.S. midterm elections, undermine Tibet’s struggle for independence, and accuse India of genocide.
In its
third-quarter report released on Nov. 30, Meta said it took down over 4,800 fake Facebook accounts from three different networks – two or which were linked to China and one to Russia – that spread divisive content about U.S. politics and the Russian-Ukraine war; as well as false information about Tibet’s leader, the Dalai Lama.
The networks are believed to be part of foreign “influence operations,” or coordinated attempts to manipulate public opinion, behavior, or policy. Ben Nimmo, Meta's global threat intelligence lead, warned that these campaigns were
becoming more common, with China having emerged as the third biggest source of such activity, after Russia and Iran.
Campaigns of this kind are part of China’s ever-expanding
information warfare strategy to maintain its tight control over information and shape public opinion, said the Council on Foreign Relations. In August, when Australia was eyeing a measure against foreign interference,
Human Rights Watch warned its senate that Chinese government-linked disinformation campaigns “have spread in scope, languages used, and platforms globally,” and are used to “defend the government’s positions on Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Covid-19, and other issues.”
Such operations have also targeted
overseas Chinese communities in an apparent effort to promote loyalty to their homeland.
Just earlier this year, Meta
took down a massive network called “Spamouflage,” which had 7,704 accounts, 954 pages, and 15 groups all pushing pro-China talking points across several platforms including Instagram, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter). Before its takedown, it was believed to be the “largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world.”
Meta believes that if Chinese relations “become an election issue in a particular country, it is likely that we’ll see China-based influence operations pivot to attempt to influence those debates.” This might be the case for Taiwan, whose president Tsai Ing-wen had
warned against an increase in Chinese pro-unification propaganda as it holds its presidential elections next year.