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    Meta says Chinese, Russian influence operations are among the biggest it's taken down

    Facebook's parent company says both operations used fake accounts across social media sites to promote Chinese and Russian interests
    by Shannon Bond Aug 29, 2023 5 minutes
    Facebook's parent company, Meta, says operations linked to China and Russia used fake accounts across social media sites to spread messages

    Facebook parent Meta says Chinese law enforcement is behind the largest covert online influence operation the company has ever disrupted.

    The operation spread pro-China messages and attacked critics of Beijing's policies, using a sprawling network of fake accounts across more than 50 websites, from Facebook and Instagram to YouTube, Twitter (now known as X), TikTok, Reddit, and dozens of smaller platforms and forums.

    The fake accounts posted links to articles praising China and denigrating U.S. and European foreign policy, as well as seemingly personal comments that appear to be copied and pasted from a numbered list, resulting in hundreds of identical posts.

    "They were really trying to spread their way across the internet and to try to spread their message across the internet," said Ben Nimmo, Meta's global threat intelligence lead.

    Despite the network's

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