Facebook reveals broad takedown of global disinformation networks [View all]
Source: Washington Post
Facebook on Wednesday said it took down disinformation networks tied to a broad swath of political actors and events around the world, including militant group Hamas, Chinese state groups, and the immigration crisis along the Belarus-Poland border. The company also removed accounts run by anti-vaccine groups that were using evolving tactics to attack doctors in Europe.
Together, the cat-and-mouse game described in the company’s monthly threat report continues to demonstrate how social media is an active battlefield where governments and motivated parties to manipulate public opinion. It also shows the might of the global platform, which has recently come under renewed fire for its role in spreading societal harms.
Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta, does not disclose the reach of the disinformation campaigns, making it difficult for outsiders to gauge their actual influence. It discloses accounts removed and the followers of those accounts, but not the views that the posts received.
The China operation was discovered, the company said, after a mysterious account claiming to be a Swiss biologist posted that the United States was pressuring and intimidating World Health Organization scientists studying the origins of covid-19 in an attempt to blame China for the virus. The false persona was named Wilson Edwards and made the posts on Twitter and Facebook in July.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/12/01/facebook-disinformation-report/
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