Meta Platforms Inc. has blocked two social media influence operations linked to China and Russia, the company announced today.

The first of the two influence operations that Meta disrupted originated in China. According to the company, the development marks the first time that it has blocked a China-linked influence operation which focused on U.S. domestic politics ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Users based in Czechia and Chinese- and French-speaking audiences were targeted as well. 

The influence operation was carried out by what Meta described today as a “small network.” According to the company, the network carried out “four largely separate and short-lived efforts” between fall 2021 and September 2022.

In the U.S., the network targeted users on both sides of the political spectrum. In Czechia, the network generated content that criticized the state’s support of Ukraine in the war with Russia and its impact on the Czech economy. The content also cautioned against antagonizing China.

Meta detailed today that the influence operation spanned Meta and Instagram, as well as other platforms such as Twitter. The influence operation produced content in low volumes. Few people engaged with the content and some of those who did identified it as fake, Meta has determined. 

“Each cluster of accounts — around half a dozen each — posted content at low volumes during working hours in China rather than when their target audiences would typically be awake,” Meta global threat intelligence lead Ben Nimmo and David Agranovich, the company’s director of threat disruption, detailed in a blog post today. “Few people engaged with it and some of those who did called it out as fake.”

The second influence operation taken down by Meta, which originated in Russia, was significantly broader. Meta today described the operation as “the largest of its kind we’ve disrupted since the war in Ukraine began.” It relied on a network of social media accounts, websites designed to impersonate news outlets and ad campaigns. 

The influence operation mainly focused on users in Germany, but also targeted users in France, Italy, Ukraine and the U.K. The content published by the influence operation criticized Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees, expressed support for Russia and argued that Western sanctions against Russia would backfire. The content was published in more than a half dozen languages.

The influence operation included a network of more than 60 websites that impersonated legitimate news organizations in Europe, Meta detailed today. Content from the websites was spread through social media accounts and ads. In some cases, the content was amplified by the social media pages of Russian embassies in Europe and Asia. 

“Throughout our investigation, as we blocked this operation’s domains, they attempted to set up new websites, suggesting persistence and continuous investment in this activity across the internet,” Nimmo and Agranovich wrote. 

Meta has published a report containing its findings about the two influence operations that it detailed today. The report includes, among other details, threat data including a list of the website domains used by the influence operations. Meta hopes that the data will help the security community address malicious activity elsewhere on the web.

Image: Meta