It is usual that Facebook, Instagram Y Twitter dismantle coordinated campaigns of disinformation that support the interests of Russia, China either Iran. However, for the first time the platforms have blocked a covert operation sponsored by USA which used a network of accounts to promote pro-Western perspectives among users in the Middle East and Asia.
As revealed by a new report from the analysis company of social networks Graphika and Stanford University, the dismantled digital campaign fostered narratives about international politics that align with the West’s view as defending Ukraine and criticism of Moscow, Beijing and Tehran. Thus, these accounts shared media financed by the government of USAsuch as Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, in which the kremlin to kill innocent civilians. Those news shares contained links to websites sponsored by the US military.
This is the first time that Goal, the parent company that owns Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter are moving to block a coordinated campaign of pro-Western influence abroad, saying it violates their rules. A spokeswoman for Meta has confirmed it while Twitter has not made any statement about it.
The researchers who have advanced the dismantling of these campaigns have highlighted their limitation in influencing their targets. “The vast majority of posts and tweets we reviewed received no more than a handful of likes or retweets,” they explained.
Manipulate: a lucrative business
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In recent years, the large social platforms have accentuated their mechanisms to detect this type of propaganda campaign and disinformation. And they have done so pressured by the proliferation of an opaque business of psychological manipulation that, according to conservative calculations, would have moved some 60,000 million dollars since 2009.
In recent years, political consultancies aimed at the strategic manufacture of hoax campaigns have not stopped growing to try to influence and manipulate citizens around the world and influence critical electoral processes such as elections. A oxford university study identified in 2020 up to 65 of those companies that launched these operations in 48 countries.