Meta says it shuttered thousands of accounts involved in Chinese covert influence operation

Meta said it closed thousands of China-linked accounts on its platforms that were participating in the “largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world.”

The digital influence campaign spread across more than 50 online platforms, including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Google’s YouTube, X, TikTok and Reddit, according to Meta’s Adversarial Threat Report for 2023’s second quarter.

Meta said it linked the influence operation to “individuals associated with Chinese law enforcement.”

“This campaign was run by geographically dispersed operators across China who appeared to be centrally provisioned with internet access and content,” Meta said in the report published Tuesday. “It included positive commentary about China and its province Xinjiang and criticisms of the United States, Western foreign policies, and critics of the Chinese government, including journalists and researchers.”

Meta said it scrubbed 7,704 Facebook accounts, 954 Facebook pages and 15 Instagram accounts as part of the China-based campaign aiming at the U.S., U.K., Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Chinese-speaking audiences globally.