Meta, on Thursday, said that it has taken down about 4,800 fake, Chinese accounts. These social media accounts were designed to be from Americans and were being used to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the US ahead of next year's elections. The account was attempting to build an audience when it was identified and eliminated by the tech company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, an AP report read.
The topics posted on topics like abortion, aid to Ukraine and culture war issues. Though Meta did not link the accounts to Beijing officials, it said that there has been a rise in such networks in China ahead of the 2024 US elections. These fake accounts, copy-pasted or relayed messages from the social media platform X, from accounts of political figures like Nancy Pelosi, Republican Matt Gaetz and more.
According to a Forbes report, Meta also shut down a network of 13 fake accounts from China that targeted India and Tibet. The accounts were posing as journalists and activists. Six Russia-based accounts were shut down; so were one page and three Instagram accounts targeting English-speaking audiences around the world.
The fake accounts targetting the US also relayed or copy-pasted tweets by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Jim Jordan. Meta, as a policy stands against 'coordinated inauthentic behaviour" — posts by groups of accounts that use false identities and work together to mislead other users.
Usually, content posted by such networks references to accurate news stories, but, is used to manipulate public opinion, push division and make particular viewpoints seem more popular than they really are, a BBC report reads.
