Current:Home > InvestFacebook takes down China-based network spreading false COVID-19 claims-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Facebook takes down China-based network spreading false COVID-19 claims
View Date:2024-12-23 22:15:16
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram said on Wednesday it has taken down more than 600 accounts, pages and groups connected to a Chinese influence operation spreading COVID-19 disinformation, including an account purporting to be a fictitious Swiss biologist.
The China-based network was one of six Meta, formerly know as Facebook, removed in November for abusing its platforms, a reminder that bad actors around the world are using social media to promote false information and harass opponents.
The other operations included one supporting Hamas and two others, based in Poland and Belarus, that were focused on the migration crisis on the countries' shared border.
Meta also removed a network tied to a European anti-vaccination conspiracy movement that harassed doctors, elected officials and journalists on Facebook and other internet platforms, as well as a group of accounts in Vietnam that reported activists and government critics to Facebook in attempts to get them banned from the social network.
The China-based operation came to light after the company was alerted to an account purporting to be a Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards (no such person exists). The account posted claims on Facebook and Twitter in July that the U.S. was pressuring World Health Organization scientists to blame China for the COVID-19 virus. The posts alleging U.S. intimidation soon appeared in Chinese state media stories.
"This campaign was a hall of mirrors, endlessly reflecting a single fake persona," Ben Nimmo, who investigates influence operations at Meta, wrote in the company's report. Meta connected the operation to individuals in China and people "associated with Chinese state infrastructure companies located around the world," he said.
The Chinese operation was an example of what Meta calls "coordinated inauthentic behavior," in which adversaries use fake accounts for influence operations, as Russian operatives did by impersonating Americans on Facebook in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
But recently, Meta's security team has expanded its focus to root out accounts of real people who are working together to cause harm both on Facebook and offline.
That was the rationale used to remove a network of accounts in Italy and France connected to an anti-vaccination movement known as V_V. According to a report from the research firm Graphika, the group largely coordinates on the messaging app Telegram, but "appears to primarily target Facebook, where its members display the group's double V symbol in their profile pictures and swarm the comments sections of posts advocating for COVID-19 vaccines with hundreds of abusive messages." Graphika said the group has also defaced health facilities and attempted to disrupt public vaccination programs.
Meta said the people behind the network used real, duplicate and fake accounts to comment on Facebook posts in droves and intimidate people. That breaks the company's rules against "brigading." Meta said it is not banning all V_V content but will take further action if it finds more rule-breaking behavior. It did not say how many accounts it removed in the network.
The company acknowledged that even as it becomes quicker at detecting and removing accounts that break its rules, it is playing a cat-and-mouse game.
"Adversarial networks don't strive to neatly fit our policies or only violate one at a time," Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta's head of security policy, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. "We build our defenses with the expectation that they will not stop, but rather adapt and try new tactics. "
Editor's note: Meta pays NPR to license NPR content.
veryGood! (3222)
Related
- Arbitrator upholds 5-year bans of Bad Bunny baseball agency leaders, cuts agent penalty to 3 years
- Last Chance Nordstrom Summer Sale: Extra 25% Off Clearance & Deals Up to 80% on Free People, Spanx & More
- Woman who fell trying to escape supermarket shooting prayed as people rushed past to escape
- Dolphins, Jalen Ramsey agree to record three-year, $72.3 million extension
- West Virginia governor-elect Morrisey to be sworn in mid-January
- Walz says Gaza demonstrators are protesting for ‘all the right reasons’ while condemning Hamas
- Dye in Doritos used in experiment that, like a 'magic trick,' created see-through mice
- A new tarantula species is discovered in Arizona: What to know about the creepy crawler
- Summer I Turned Pretty's Gavin Casalegno Marries Girlfriend Cheyanne Casalegno
- Connecticut pastor elected president of nation’s largest Black Protestant denomination
Ranking
- Apologetic rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine gets 45 days in prison for probation violations
- North Carolina court orders RFK Jr.'s name to be removed just before ballots are sent
- A Maryland high school fight involving a weapon was ‘isolated incident,’ police say
- A Maryland high school fight involving a weapon was ‘isolated incident,’ police say
- Special counsel Smith asks court to pause appeal seeking to revive Trump’s classified documents case
- Why the Eagles are not wearing green in Brazil game vs. Packers
- Get 50% Off BareMinerals 16-Hour Powder Foundation & More Sephora Deals on Anastasia Beverly Hills
- Nevada inmate who died was pepper sprayed and held face down, autopsy shows
Recommendation
-
Full House's John Stamos Shares Message to Costar Dave Coulier Amid Cancer Battle
-
Cheeseheads in Brazil: Feeling connected to the Packers as Sao Paulo hosts game
-
Utah sheriff’s deputy stalked and killed by her father, prosecutors say
-
A body in an open casket in a suburban Detroit park prompts calls to police
-
Lane Kiffin puts heat on CFP bracket after Ole Miss pounds Georgia. So, who's left out?
-
These modern day Mormons are getting real about sex. But can they conquer reality TV?
-
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in New Hampshire’s state primaries
-
Dye in Doritos used in experiment that, like a 'magic trick,' created see-through mice