US Military Suspected of Online Operations in Central Asia – Voice of America

The Voice of America reports that Meta posted a report according to which the US military is suspected of conducting "online missions" in Central Asia.

Meta Suspects The US Military

Facebook Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus Meta is an American multinational holding company, which is the parent organization of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus.

According to Voice of America, people associated with the US Armed Forces have created fake accounts on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

The accounts were conducted by unknown persons as part of "coordinated inauthentic" (i.e. using fake accounts and posts) online operations. The goal - change public opinion about Russia and the United States.

Residents of Central Asia and the Middle East were chosen as the target audience for the operation. Instagram Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Meta, a company that owns Facebook, says this in a report published on November 22.

Although the people behind the operation, according to Meta experts, "tried to hide personal data," its investigation "found connections with persons associated with the US armed forces."

At the moment, the US Department of Defense has not yet commented on the request of the Voice of America regarding the report. However, the Ministry of Defense told BBC News that it was "aware of the report published by Meta."

"We currently have no further comments on the report or possible actions that may be taken by the department as a result of the report,"

RMB: Researchers from Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory initially reported on this.

The report, which was released in August, VOA writes, exposed the actions of anonymous accounts and groups on Facebook and Twitter.

According to the report, "cunning" methods were used in Internet operations. They involved fake personalities and "coordinated memes" to change public opinion in a number of CIS countries.

However, the publication writes, such methods are not new. Russia and Iran have also been accused of using them. The infamous "Troll Factory" in St. Petersburg spreading misinformation about the United States stands out.

Facebook Insta Has Deleted Dozens of "Suspicious" Accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Meta claims to have deleted 39 Facebook accounts and 26 Instagram accounts. Voice of America writes that they were part of a coordinated campaign. It was aimed at the countries of Central Asia. In addition to the CIS space, operations were also conducted in a number of Middle Eastern countries.

The campaign reportedly operated not only on Facebook and Instagram but also YouTube and Telegram. Its traces were also discovered in VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.

Meta reported that the topics of Internet operations were mainly sports or culture. They emphasized the positive cooperation of the countries with the United States.

At the same time, Russia, Iran and China were criticized. Meta managed to find out that the posts were published in North American Eastern Time. They were conducted in Arabic, Farsi and Russian. For example, some posts praised the US armed forces and included content about COVID-19. Soon Meta removed them for "violating the information policy".

However, according to Meta, Internet campaigns have not received the expected popularity in social networks. The posts gained a dozen or more "likes" with a small number of views at best.

According to The Verge, after the first revelations, the Pentagon began looking into the US's alleged "covert psyops".

"The White House and officials from other federal agencies have become increasingly concerned about the use of covert online influence operations since the report was published."

The Verge, with reference to The Washington Post.