Meta shuts down Russian propaganda network in Europe

The US technology company Meta claims to have shut down a Russian propaganda network that wanted to work with hundreds of fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram. Fake pages from more than 60 news portals such as the British newspaper "The Guardian" and the German news magazine "Der Spiegel" were also discovered before a large audience was reached, Meta said on Tuesday.

It is probably the largest and most comprehensive Russian propaganda operation since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, which Moscow started on February 24. Links to misinformation about Ukraine and Russian propaganda have been placed on the deceptively real fake news sites. More than 1,600 fake Facebook and Instagram accounts were used to spread Russian propaganda in Germany, France, Britain and Ukraine.

"On rare occasions, the content of the operation was reinforced by official Facebook pages of Russian embassies in Europe and Asia," said David Agranovich, Director of Countering Threats at Meta. "I think this is possibly the largest and most comprehensive Russian-originated operation that we have eliminated in Ukraine (...) since the war began."

Investigative journalists in Germany found out about the activities of the Russian network. When Meta began its investigation, it was discovered that many fake accounts had already been removed by Facebook's automated systems. These fake accounts would have had thousands of followers when they were shut down.

Fakes were luridly presented on the news sites: "Video: False staging in Bucha revealed," was the description of a false report on the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers in the city near Kyiv.

According to Agranovich, the meta-investigators could not prove any direct connection to the propaganda network to the Russian government. However, the meta director pointed out the role of Russian embassies in spreading the fake content and the high cost of the operation, which is reflected in the use of multiple languages ​​and carefully designed scam sites. A request to the Russian Embassy in Washington for the information provided by Meta was initially not answered.

Meta's threat researchers in Menlo Park also uncovered a smaller, China-originated operation designed to distribute divisive content in the United States, the company said. However, these posts were amateurish because they were written in poor English and during Chinese working hours, it said.

"Although it failed, it is important because it marks a new direction" in Chinese disinformation campaigns, said Meta's head of global threats, Ben Nimmo. It was also the first such activity prior to the US midterm elections in November.