The information war has only just begun. Some people “associated with the US military” were behind fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta’s latest cyber threat report published on Tuesday, November 22. The profiles were used to promote American interests in several countries around the world.
65 accounts on Facebook and Instagram
In total, 39 Facebook accounts, 16 pages, two groups and 26 Instagram accounts were deleted for violating the platform’s rules on the authenticity of information. Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen… The network was controlled from the United States and operated between the Middle East and Central Asia. Other social networks could have been used for this massive propaganda campaign such as Twitter, YouTube, Telegram or VKontakte and Odnoklassniki in Russia.
This is the first major covert pro-American propaganda operation, according to the BBC. The accounts were used to support countries allied with the United States while opposing hostile nations. This campaign is also a great first for a democratic nation. Normally, disinformation networks are run by authoritarian countries.
A “thorough audit” led by the army
The accounts managed by this campaign used fake identities and artificially generated profile pictures. Meta’s verification systems were able to deactivate several accounts automatically before an internal investigation was conducted. Independent researchers from Graphika, assisted by the Stanford Internet Observatory network, analyzed the behavior and content generated by the network for several weeks. It thus appears that the posts published by the fake accounts have produced very few reactions, on Facebook as on Instagram.
“Although the individuals behind this operation have attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation has revealed links to individuals associated with the U.S. military”, says Meta in his report. The announcement of the American group confirms initial information published in September by the washington post. According to the newspaper, a “thorough audit” was launched by the Pentagon in order to understand from which military command unit this network of influence could come.
A strategy that questions
Gavin Wilde, a specialist in influence issues, says he understands the reasons for the launch of such an operation by the United States. In the field of information, “the only way to lose is not to play”, he explains to CNN. However, if the technique used by the army “puts the transparency and credibility of the United States at stake (…) is the game really worth the candle?”asks the researcher.
Questioned by the BBC, the American army says it is “informed” of the Meta report, but she has no specific comments to make.