Meta Says It Disabled Extensive Russian Propaganda Operation

Topline

Meta said Tuesday it had taken down the largest and most complex Russian propaganda social media operation on its platforms to date, a campaign that targeted European countries with Kremlin viewpoints about the war in Ukraine.

Key Facts

The operation impersonated legitimate websites, including Spiegel, The Guardian and Bild, with articles that “criticized Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees, supported Russia and argued that Western sanctions on Russia would backfire,” according to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

The articles were then promoted across a host of fake accounts and more than 60 websites, including Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter and petition website Change.org, while the social media accounts of Russian embassies in Europe and Asia would also occasionally amplify the content.

The operation, which Meta said began in May, targeted primarily Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The website impersonations and the use of many languages complicated efforts to take down the large network, though Meta was able to automatically detect many fake accounts, pages and ads and disable them before the company began its larger investigation into the propaganda efforts, it said.

Meta began its probe into the propaganda efforts after German journalists reported on the operation in August.

Tangent

One of the fake news stories promoted was titled “Video: False Staging in Bucha Revealed!” an article that claimed Ukraine staged the massacre of hundreds of Ukrainians in a suburb of Kyiv occupied by Russians, according to the Associated Press. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also called the Bucha allegations “fake,” though extensive evidence compiled by human rights groups and journalists led to international condemnation of Russia.

Key Background

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, social media companies have struggled to combat a host of Kremlin-supported conspiracy theories and false claims about the war. Meta has faced a host of criticisms in recent years for failing to adequately tackle the spread of disinformation on its platforms, including in 2016, when researchers found Russia used Facebook and other major social media platforms to try and help Donald Trump become president. Facebook has said tens of millions of users viewed Russian ads aimed at fostering political division before and after the 2016 election. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted the company made a series of missteps in how it handled fake news and foreign interference during that time and pledged to make changes, though the company has since come under fire again for how it handled misinformation during the 2020 election. Facebook and Twitter have disabled other operations promoting anti-Ukraine talking points and Kremlin propaganda since the war started.

Contra

The Kremlin has attempted to clamp down on those who disagree with its narrative on the war in Ukraine, arresting more than a thousand people during the past week for protesting Putin’s partial military draft and detaining thousands who have spoken out against the war.

Further Reading

Meta disables Russian propaganda network targeting Europe (Associated Press)

Facebook, Twitter remove disinformation accounts targeting Ukrainians (NBC News)