Meta disrupts massive misinformation campaign linked to Chinese influence groups

Meta, the parent company of social media giants Facebook and Instagram, has taken down nearly 9,000 accounts, groups, and pages connected to a Chinese political spam network.  

The network—referred to as ‘Spamouflage’—had been targeting users globally, including in Australia. Meta's investigation (which began in 2019) aligned with research from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI): The originators of the term "Spamouflage." 

The alleged propaganda campaign had used these platforms to spread positive commentary about China, criticism of the US and Western foreign policies, a to target critics of the Chinese government, including journalists and researchers. Facebook pages created for the campaign comprised nearly 560,000 followers, though Meta indicated the accounts were likely spam accounts purchased from Bangladesh, Vietnam or Brazil.

The operation involved multiple platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and more, and even shifted to smaller sites after its initial identification and blockage in 2019. 

Despite its extensive reach, Meta noted that the Spamouflage operation struggled to go beyond its own echo chamber, often receiving comments from its own accounts to create a façade of popularity.  

This was partly due to poor quality control and pages acquired from spam operators that were unrelated to the campaign's intended content. 

Meta's report also covered similar campaigns from Russia, Iran, and Turkey. The company's global threat intelligence lead, Ben Nimmo, called Spamouflage "the largest, though unsuccessful, and most prolific covert influence operation that we know of in the world today." 

“We have been able to link Spamouflage to individuals associated with Chinese law enforcement. For the first time we've been able to tie these many clusters together to confirm that they all go to one operation,” says Nimmo. 

The shut down of more than 7,700 Facebook accounts and 15 Instagram accounts is touted as the biggest single takedown action on Meta's platforms. The network had been running from different parts of China, showing patterns of activity consistent with office working hours.