Facebook and Twitter have taken down a major pro-American propaganda operation

Twitter and several social networks of the Meta group (Instagram, Facebook) deleted, in July and August, accounts that spread pro-American messages, in certain countries of the Middle East and Russian-speaking countries. This is the conclusion of a report published on August 24, written jointly by the statistical analysis firm Graphika and a team of researchers from the Stanford University Internet Observatory, and broadcast by the New York Times.

This is the first American “influence operation” discovered and removed from social media. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Renée DiResta, a researcher at Stanford University.

Most of the messages were intended, according to the New York Timesto promote the vision, values, and goals of the United States, and discredit those of Russia, China, Iran, or other countries.

The accounts in question posted news, “memes” (humorous illustrations) or even stories, particularly from people who did not exist, all in at least seven different languages, including Russian, Arabic or Urdu, the official language of Pakistan.

It contained criticism of Russia’s “imperialist wars” in Syria and Africa, while promoting US military aid in Central Asia and Iraq, for example.

little success

This operation was carried out for almost 5 years, on 8 different social networks and messaging applications. Facebook identified the accounts as originating from the United States, while Twitter said it had reason to believe they were from the United States and the United Kingdom.

However, the report specifies that four accounts were identified in France, according to statistics from Facebook Transparency. Information that the social network has not confirmed. Despite the unprecedented nature of the operation, the accounts were not blatantly successful, according to the report.

Russia pioneer in the middle

Before the discovery of this one, similar operations were often attributed to China, Iran, but mainly Russia. Particularly known for its “troll farms”, the country of Vladimir Putin is singled out for its propaganda actions on social networks, in particular during the 2016 presidential elections in the United States.

Wherever they come from, these meetings of accounts for propaganda purposes go against the conditions of use of Facebook and Twitter. Facebook claims to have been active against Russian propaganda in recent months, regularly taking down organized networks of this kind. The two companies did not express themselves on the matter with the New York Times.