Meta Blocks Thousands of Fake Accounts from China and Russia masquerading as Americans

Meta Platform Inc., recently detected and shut down two separate networks from fake accounts.(photo: doc, Facebook)

JAKARTA - Facebook's parent company, Meta Platform Inc., recently detected and shut down two separate networks of fake accounts involved in covert influence operations run from China and Russia.

Some of these accounts are known to impersonate Americans. Meta said the act of removing fake accounts was because the company felt it had to remain vigilant against foreign interference in the US midterm elections which are two months away.

Meta spokesman and global threat intelligence, Ben Nimmo, said this was the first time the company had seen Chinese accounts targeting Americans in this way.

"They run fake accounts pretending to be American and trying to talk like Americans and they talk about really divisive domestic issues like abortion and gun control," Nimmo told CNN International, Wednesday, September 28.

"It looks like they're using these hot issues to try and find an entry point into the American discourse."

Nimmo explained that Meta had removed 81 Facebook accounts, eight Pages, one Group and two accounts on the photo and video service Instagram with ties to China.

Some accounts target people in the US, while others focus on Czech Republic and Chinese and French speaking users globally. According to Meta, the network was small and didn't attract much engagement before the company discontinued it.

Reported by CNET, China's influence operation consists of four efforts. The first group of accounts posted in Chinese with fake accounts that had a female name in English but a male profile picture.

They criticize the US and its foreign policy and accuse the US of surveillance and cyber attacks against China. A second and third group of accounts posted in English this year, masquerading as conservative and liberal Americans, respectively.

One fake account posted a meme last April about US President Joe Biden with the phrase in all capital letters reading "One Year In: Nothing Built. Nothing Back. Nothing Better."

Furthermore, another set of accounts posted memes last August that called out US Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and urged people to vote for him.

A fourth group of accounts pretended to be people in the Czech Republic, sharing memes and texts criticizing the Czech government. Some fake accounts allege that the Czech government is a puppet of the US or the European Union. One post warned that a trade war with China would be more painful than with Russia.

Most are posted during business hours in China so that means most Americans fall asleep when fake accounts share content. These accounts also use various platforms, including Twitter.

Even so, the company also does not have enough evidence to link fake Chinese accounts with certain entities such as the Chinese government.

Meta also said it had attracted a large network of fake accounts linked to Russia that mainly targeted Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine and the UK. The accounts focus on the war in Ukraine and its impact on Europe.

The network is the largest and most complex Russian operation the company has disrupted since the war in Ukraine began.

The Russian operation runs more than 60 websites that mimic European media outlets such as German news sites Der Spiegel and the Guardian. The operation also creates accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram, Twitter, Change.org, Avaaz.com and LiveJournal and is posted in multiple languages.

Of that total, Meta managed to block 1.633 Facebook accounts, 703 Pages, one Group and 29 Instagram accounts from Russia.

For your information, this case is also different from the Chinese influence operation that Meta has also revealed in the past. In previous election cycles, China's influence operations focused on US criticism of an international audience rather than a domestic audience.

The account deletion also shows how Meta is dealing with disinformation as US lawmakers raise more questions about the impact of social media on national security.