New Delhi: In an effort to thwart a Chinese misinformation campaign, Meta has deleted several Instagram profiles as well as thousands of Facebook accounts. One of the largest networks of fraudulent accounts ever found by the business, Meta erased 7,704 Facebook accounts, 954 Pages, 15 Groups, and 15 Instagram profiles in total.
Meta began looking into this operation after the attack on a non-governmental organisation in the latter part of last year. Later investigations revealed connections between this network and an earlier influence operation known as “spamouflage,” according to Bloomberg. (Also Read: Innovative Business Venture: Invest Rs 5,000 To Rs 10,000 And Earn Rs 1800 To Rs 3000 Per Day – Unlocking Daily Dividends)
Ben Nimmo, the leader of Meta’s global threat intelligence, told The New York Times that this was the largest takedown of a single network they had ever carried out. We concluded that it was the biggest covert campaign we were aware of when we put it all together with the activities we tracked across the internet.
According to Meta representatives, the Spamouglage network—which is present on more than 50 platforms and forums, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X (previously Twitter)—has grown to be the largest cross-platform influence operation to date.
According to Meta, the ‘Spamouflage’ network initially started posting on bigger sites like Facebook, YouTube, and X, but recent activity reveals that it has increased its presence on smaller platforms like Medium, Reddit, Quora, and Vimeo.