The influence operation that promoted the U.S. foreign policy interests has been removed from social media networks.
It was the first time that an influence campaign was discovered and taken down from social media. The operation, which ran for almost five years on eight social networks and messaging apps, promoted the views, values and goals of the United States while attacking the interests of Russia, China, Iran and other countries.
The accounts behind the operation posed as news outlets or took on the persona of people who didn't exist, posting content in at least seven languages. Russia and other countries were criticized for engaging in "imperialist wars" in Syria and Africa.
According to the report, Meta said that the United States was the country of origin for the accounts it owned.
Renée DiResta is the research manager at the internet observatory. It is the first time that a pro-U.S. foreign influence operation has been taken down by a social media platform.
Russia, China, Iran and other foreign adversaries of the US have been blamed for most of the influence operations on social networks. Russia used social networks to spread misinformation in the 2016 presidential election. China has been using social media to undermine accusations of human rights abuses.
Influence operations that promote U.S. interests abroad have been active for a long time.
The US government doesn't comment on covert programs. The agency will look into and assess any information that the social networking sites give.
The accounts were removed in July and August because they were not allowed to work together to promote certain narratives. Telegram was one of the platforms used in the operation.
There was no comment from the social media company on the report. Meta did not reply to questions. The companies have not published a report on the pro-U.S. campaign.
When Meta revealed in October 2020 that a marketing firm was working with a conservative organization to target Americans, it was the only U.S. operation they had previously named.
In an email, YouTube said it had terminated several channels posting in Arabic, Farsi and Russian to promote the U.S. The findings were similar to those in the other reports.
The tactics used in the pro- U.S. influence campaign were similar to those used by China, according to Ms. DiResta. China is more focused on promoting a positive picture of life in the country than Russia is. She said the goal was to show how great the U.S. was compared to other countries.
According to the report, the researchers were notified of the pro-U.S. online campaign so they could study it. The researchers found that the operation mostly focused on messaging that favored the United States and the West and criticized Russia, China and Iran.
Researchers said the accounts tailored their language and messaging to different regions. Between June 2020 and March 2022, a group of 12Twitter accounts, 10 Facebook pages, 15 Facebook profiles and 10Instagram accounts were created to focus on Central Asia. Vostochnaya Pravda was a fake media outlet. There is at least one account that posed as an individual using a doctored profile photo.
The accounts cheered on the pro-Ukrainian protests in Central Asian countries that were caused by the food shortages.
Between November 2020 and June 2022, another set of 21 accounts, six accounts, five profiles, and two Facebook pages were targeted by Iranian audiences. Artificial intelligence may have been used to create some of the profiles. Many people tried to present themselves as real people by showing photos of Persian food and Iranian poetry.
According to posts from the effort, the Iranian government took food from its citizens to give to the Hezbollah militant group, as well as embarrassing moments for the country, such as a power outage that caused the Iranian chess team to lose an online tournament.
Dozens of posts on social media compared opportunities for Iranian and foreign women. Iran's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine was criticized by other messages.
The U.S. Agency for International Development in Iraq and positive interactions between American troops and Syrian children were applauded by another group of accounts.
A group of accounts that focused on Central Asian countries mentioned the U.S.A.I.D. 94 times on social media and hailed Washington as a reliable economic partner that could help reduce the region's dependence on Russia.
The campaigns didn't reach a large group of people. Only 19 percent of the covert accounts that were identified had over 1,000 followers and most of the posts received a "handful" of likes or retweets.
Barnes reported.
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