Meta Shut Down Over 4,500 Facebook IDs

Facebook suddenly shut down 4,789 fake accounts. Meta said it shut down the fake accounts to prevent Chinese propaganda surrounding the 2024 US presidential election.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Thursday that these accounts would be closed.

According to Meta, this Chinese influence initiative was detected at the beginning of the first three months of 2023. These fake Facebook account holders make various posts in English about American politics or relations with China. In addition, they criticized the two main opponents of American politics with information from X (formerly Twitter).

The interconnected accounts pulled content from both liberal and conservative sources, an indication that its goal was not to support one side or the other but to exaggerate partisan divisions and further inflame polarization.

Meta Platforms Inc., based in Menlo Park, California, did not publicly link the Chinese network to the Chinese government, but it did determine the network originated in that country. The content spread by the accounts broadly complements other Chinese government propaganda and disinformation that has sought to inflate partisan and ideological divisions within the US.

Regarding the effectiveness of these fake Facebook accounts, Meta said, it is not clear whether this method can increase party tensions or increase politicians' supporters. But these accounts are made to look real. The tech giant says it has thwarted five such fake campaigns launched by China in the US this year. Which is more than other countries. However, Meta did not blame the Chinese government or any other specific person or group in the country for this fake Facebook network.

Earlier, Meta shut down a Russia-based network in the third quarter of this year. The network spread information about Russia's invasion of Ukraine._Al Jazeera