it is usual Facebook, Instagram Y excitement remove coordinated campaigns disinformation supporting the interests Russia, Chinese anyone Iranian. However, for the first time, the platforms blocked a US-sponsored covert operation that used a network of accounts to promote pro-Western views among users in the Middle East and Asia.
A new report from social media analytics firm Graphika and Stanford University has revealed that the digital takedown campaign promotes narratives about international politics that are aligned with Western views, such as advocacy. Ukraine and criticisms of Moscow, Beijing and Tehran. Thus, these accounts shared media funded by the government. United States of AmericaLike Radio Free Europe and Voice of America Kremlin to kill innocent civilians. These news posts included links to websites sponsored by the US military.
this is the first time AimThe parent company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter are taking action to block a coordinated campaign of pro-Western influence abroad, saying it violates its own rules. While a spokesperson for Meta confirmed this, Twitter did not make any statement on the matter.
Advancing the removal of these campaigns, the researchers highlighted their limitations in influencing their targets. “The vast majority of posts and tweets we reviewed received no more than a handful of likes or retweets,” they explained.
Manipulating: a lucrative business
In recent years, major social platforms have highlighted their mechanisms for detecting such propaganda campaigns and disinformation. And they did so under pressure from the proliferation of an inexplicable business of psychological manipulation, which, according to conservative calculations, would have moved about $60,000 million since 2009.
In recent years, political consultancies targeting the strategic production of fake campaigns have not stopped growing to try to influence and manipulate citizens around the world and to influence critical electoral processes such as elections. A study by the University of Oxford identified close to 65 companies launching these operations in 48 countries in 2020.