Pro-Western, anti-China influence ops taken down by Facebook and Twitter – CNA

SINGAPORE: Tech giants Twitter and Meta in recent weeks removed social media accounts promoting pro-Western narratives that supported the United States and its allies while opposing countries like China and Russia, according to a report released on Wednesday (Aug 24).  The joint study by the Stanford Internet Observatory – a programme at Stanford University studying the abuse of the Internet – and social media analytics firm Graphika points to the first time covert pro-Western influence operations have been identified and taken down on social media. “With few exceptions, the study of modern influence operations has overwhelmingly focused on activity linked to authoritarian regimes in countries such as Russia, China, and Iran, with recent growth in research on the integral role played by private entities,” the report stated.  Data provided by Twitter and Facebook parent firm Meta to the researchers showed a series of covert campaigns that ran over a period of almost five years on various social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  An “interconnected web” of accounts on those platforms used deceptive tactics to promote pro-Western narratives in the Middle East and Central Asia.  Twitter listed the campaigns’ “presumptive countries of origin” as the US and Great Britain, while Meta…
Read More