Meta takes down China-based networks of thousands of accounts

The meta takes down thousands of accounts of China-based networks that are fake and misleading accounts. The users pretended to be American and attempted to promote divisive content about US politics and US-China ties.

The removed China-based network posted on topics related to abortion, culture war issues, and aid to Ukraine. Meta did not relate the profile of these users to Chinese officials. However, there has been a rise in such networks based in China ahead of the 2024 US elections.

Meta takes down China-based network of thousands of fake accounts https://t.co/rveRT0PhG1
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 30, 2023

Meta findings report

According to Meta, China is now the third-largest geographical source of such networks behind Russia and Iran. The recent takedowns were mentioned in the third-quarter threat adversarial report released on November 30, 2023.

The China-based network had over 4,700 accounts and used profile images and names from other individuals all throughout the world. Those fake users liked and shared each other’s tweets. Some of the content appeared to be straight copied from X, formerly Twitter.

Meta takes down China-based networks of thousands of accounts

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In some cases, the accounts copied and pasted exactly posts from Republicans and Democratic US leaders including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Matt Gaetz, and Jim Jordan are among others.

Likewise, The alleged network showed no ideological consistency. One of the examples that Meta provided was a user on the China-based network who copied the comments from a tweet by Sylvia Garcia. Sylvia is a female politician and Congresswoman. She criticized the abortion laws of Texa tweeting “Let’s remember – abortion is healthcare”.

According to Meta, the massive Chinese network has shut down before it could popularity among real users. According to the Meta investigator Ben Nimmo, such networks continue to struggle to build audiences but they are a warning sign. Ben handles investigations into fraudulent behavior on the platform of Meta which owns Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram.