Meta, Facebook’s parent company, warns that China has become the third most common source of foreign influence operations, following Russia and Iran, and has increased its manipulation efforts on social media.

New threats: China is fundamentally ramping up its efforts to manipulate people on social media across the globe.
* For the first time, in 2023 Meta took down five Chinese networks of fake accounts, which is the highest number of any country this year.
* These Chinese operations targeted people in regions including sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, Europe, and the United States, generally promoting Chinese interests and attacking government critics.

Recent operations: In the third quarter of this year, Meta dismantled two China-based misleading operations.
* The larger operation included a network of around 4,800 Facebook accounts impersonating Americans and posting about U.S. politics and U.S.-China relations.
* The second, smaller network consisted of 13 Facebook accounts and seven groups, mainly targeting Tibet and India, and posing as journalists, human rights activists, and lawyers.

Further implications: With multiple elections approaching in 2024, Meta has warned that Chinese operations may aim to manipulate discussions of relations with China in targeted regions.
* Meta’s global threat intelligence lead, Ben Nimmo, warns that heightened partisan tensions can be exploited by foreign threat actors.
* Alongside China, operations are expected from Russia and Iran, with Russia still being the most prolific source of coordinated influence operations.

Obstacles to combating interference: Efforts to counter foreign interference have been met with legal and political challenges.
* Coordination with civil society groups, researchers, federal agencies, and other tech companies to counter such campaigns has come under legal and political pressure.
* Meta reported that since July, the U.S. government has “paused” sharing information about foreign election interference due to a federal judge issuing an injunction.
View original article on NPR
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