Meta takes down massive Russian disinformation network targetting Europe
The operation was based on a network of over 60 websites that impersonated authentic European news organisations
Meta has disabled thousands of fraudulent pages, accounts and groups from Facebook and Instagram that originated in Russia and disseminated misinformation about that Russia's war with Ukraine.
According to Meta, this influence network primarily targeted people in Germany, France, UK, Italy, and Ukraine.
The operation, which started in May of this year, was based on a vast network of more than 60 websites that carefully impersonated authentic news websites in Europe.
The Guardian (theguardian[.]co[.]com), Italian news agency ANSA (ansa[.]ltd), La Repubblica (repubblica[.]life), and Der Spiegel (e.g., spiegel[.]ltd, spiegel[.]today, spiegeli[.]live, spiegel[.]pro) were among the news organisations impersonated by this vast propaganda network.
"There, they would post original articles that criticised Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees, supported Russia and argued that Western sanctions on Russia would backfire," Meta's Global Threat Intelligence Lead Ben Nimmo and Threat Disruption Director David Agranovich stated in a blog post.
Additionally, the operators then promoted those articles, as well as original memes and YouTube videos, across a variety of social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram and even LiveJournal.
Petitions on websites like Change.org and Avaaz were used to promote the propaganda stories.
Meta says as it blocked the domains used for this operation, the operators attempted to launch new websites, suggesting continuous investment in the activity across the internet.
While the operators primarily used English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Ukrainian languages to spread propaganda, in a few instances, the Facebook Pages of the Russian embassies in Europe and Asia also promoted the operation's content.
Meta says this is the biggest and most intricate Russian-origin operation it has dismantled since the start of the Ukrainian War.
The firm claims to have identified and blocked over 1,600 Facebook accounts and 700 Facebook pages connected to the campaign, which attracted over 5,000 followers.
Ahead of the midterm elections in the US, Meta says it has also taken down a Chinese network that focused on internal politics and various issues in the US, such as abortion and gun regulation.
This relatively small network targeted people who spoke Chinese and French, as well as those in the Czech Republic.
Fewer than 100 accounts, pages, and groups were connected to this campaign, which were followed by fewer than 300 users. The accounts published stories that covered both sides of the US political spectrum.
The posts made several awkward English language errors and showed a tendency to publish during Chinese business hours, suggesting that they weren't American.
Despite being ineffective, the network is noteworthy since Meta recognised it as the first to have sent political messages to Americans in advance of this year's midterm elections.
While the Chinese posts did not endorse any one party, the messages seemed to be trying to create division, according to Meta.