Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said on Tuesday it had discovered and removed what it described as the first targeted Chinese meddling in US midterm elections in November.
Unlike Russia’s efforts over the last two presidential elections, however, the Chinese campaign seemed less ambitious – and sometimes more difficult.
The fake posts first appeared on Facebook and Instagram, as well as on Twitter, in November 2021, using photos of men in formal clothes but with women’s names, according to the company.
Users later posed as conservative Americans, promoting gun rights and opposing abortion, while criticizing President Biden. By April, they were mostly identifying as liberals from Florida, Texas and California, opposing guns and promoting reproductive rights. They messed up the English language and failed to attract many followers.
Two Meta executives said they could not comment on the campaign for any group or individual. However, these tactics showed the extent of China’s efforts to use international media to promote the Communist Party’s political and diplomatic agenda.
What made this effort unusual was the seeming focus on domestic politics ahead of the midterms.
In past campaigns, China’s propaganda apparatus has focused heavily on criticism of American foreign policy, while promoting China’s views on issues such as the crackdown on political rights in Hong Kong and the crackdown on people in Xinjiang, a predominantly Muslim region where hundreds of thousands have been forced to move. re-education camps or prisons.
Ben Nimmo, Meta’s head of global threat intelligence, said the operation shows “a new direction in China’s operations.”
“It’s talking to Americans, pretending to be Americans instead of talking about America to other countries,” he added later. “So the operation is small in itself, but it is a change.”
The operation showed a lack of urgency and scale, raising questions about its motives and goals. It included only 81 Facebook accounts, eight Facebook pages and one group. By July, the operation suddenly shifted its efforts away from the United States and toward politics in the Czech Republic.
The messages were seen during operations in China, often while the Americans were asleep. They apparently disembarked during what appeared to be “the great afternoon break.”
In one post, the user struggled with clarity: “I can’t stay in America on recovery.”
Even if the campaign fails to go viral, Mr. Nimmo said the company’s disclosure was intended to address the potential threat of China’s interference in the domestic affairs of its competitors.
Meta also announced that it had taken over the largest Russian operation that began in May and targeted Germany, as well as France, Italy and Britain.
The company said it was “the largest and most complex” operation it had seen from Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine in February.
The project targeted a network of 60 websites that emulated the official news organizations in Europe, such as Der Spiegel, Bild, The Guardian and ANSA, the Italian news agency.
These sites would post original articles criticizing Ukraine, warning about Ukrainian refugees and arguing that economic sanctions against Russia would only backfire. The articles were then promoted on the Internet, including on Facebook and Instagram, but also on Twitter and Telegram, the messaging app, which is widely used in Russia.
The Russian operation included 1,633 accounts on Facebook, 703 pages and one group, as well as 29 separate accounts on Instagram, the company’s statement said. About 4,000 accounts followed one or more of the Facebook pages. As Meta moved to close the operating domains, new websites appeared, “encouraging persistence and continued investment in this activity.”
Meta began the investigation after being tipped off in August by one of the German television networks, ZDF. As in the case of the Chinese operation, it did not blame the government of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, although this event clearly shows the Kremlin’s war surrounding its entry.
“They were kind of throwing everything at the wall and not much was sticking,” said David Agranovich, Meta’s director of threat intelligence. “It doesn’t mean we can say mission accomplished here.”
Meta’s report noted interactions between Russian and Chinese campaigns “several times,” although the company said there was no connection. This overlap reflects the increased interaction of government statements and news reports in the two countries, especially about the United States.
Accounts associated with the Chinese campaign have posted articles from Russian state media, including those that include absurd claims that the United States has secretly developed biological weapons in Ukraine.
A French-language account linked to the operation posted a version of the accusation in April, 10 days after it was posted by the Russian Ministry of Defense on Telegram. That drew one response, in French, from a genuine user, according to Meta.
“Fake,” the user wrote. “Fake. Fake as usual.”
