Australian Facebook users have been found to be the target of complex, well-planned attacks on the platform, including one campaign that sought to spread false narratives around the global pandemic through a fake news service, a report from the Senate has concluded.
Social-media company Facebook has also been plagued by evil groups that resort to paying “disinfo-for-hire businesses,”.
Latest Inquiry
The Senate believes that it bombards users with fake news while concealing their identity.
The revelations cane to light during the fourth public hearing of the Foreign Interference Through Social Media Inquiry, with senior Facebook staff presenting through video link after unexpectedly canceling their appearance last year due to a “planning problem” thought to be the American election.
‘Well-Planned Disinformation Campaigns’
The head of Facebook’s global security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said the technology company had pinpointed four “well-planned campaigns” against Australia recently, describing it as “the most sophisticated tool used by determined adversaries (nations and states)”.
The latest attack came in August 2020 and included posts in the English and Chinese language. It targeted countries including Australia.
Modus Operandi
“It engaged on a range of topics — coronavirus was among the many topics they mentioned,” he said.
“(I) uses a network of counterfeit accounts to pinpoint public debate in the United States, Australia, Europe, and beyond Southeast Asia. They pretend to be local and regional media organizations to make themselves look legitimate. ”
Other campaigns identified as targeting Facebook users in Australia include attacks on “social debate,” and also a “financially motivated operation”.
The attack are actually four of the 150 integrated campaigns to spread misinformation that have been removed from Facebook over the years.
