Meta has removed thousands of Facebook accounts based in China after discovering that they were impersonating Americans and posting about partisan issues like health care and abortion, the company shared.
In its announcement about the action, Meta noted that “foreign threat actors are attempting to reach audiences” online before the 2024 United States election.
The accounts removed by Meta were said to be mimicking social media posts from Republicans and Democrats, including Florida Gov. and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The network of fake Facebook accounts was not attributed to any particular Chinese entity, nor was a specific purpose noted by Meta in its report on foreign online threats, published Thursday.
Us National Security officials have recently suspended their work to flag potential foreign influence operations on social media after Republican attorneys general challenged the work in court.
The United States Supreme Court is planning on taking up the case to see if the work can continue or not.
Either way, the work has been paused for now, and Meta confirmed this, noting that US government agencies haven’t shared information with the platform related to foreign election interference since this summer.
Before the work was challenged, Meta’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, told reporters that “there are a number of times when a tip from the government has enabled us to take action.”
Meta shared that the action it took on the network happened before the fake accounts received any engagement from real people on Meta’s apps.