Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta on Tuesday said it had disrupted a disinformation campaign linked to Chinese law enforcement that the social media company described as the "largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world."
Meta began looking for signs of a Chinese influence operation on its own platforms after reports in 2022 highlighted how a disinformation campaign linked to the Chinese government targeted a human rights nongovernmental organization.
Meta researchers were able to link this latest disinformation network to a prior influence campaign in 2019, code named Spamouflage.
Meta also identified and disrupted other operations and published a more detailed analysis of a Russian disinformation campaign it identified shortly after the beginning of the 2022 war in Ukraine.
But this disinformation network, while prolific, was not effective, Meta cybersecurity executives said on a briefing call.
Persons:
Meta, Ben Nimmo, CNBC's Eamon Javers
Organizations:
Meta, Facebook
Locations:
China, Xinjiang, Ukraine, Cambridge, Bangladesh, Brazil, Vietnam