Five hundred Facebook accounts that promoted false claims that the United States was interfering in efforts to find the origins of Covid-19 have been deleted.

Meta points to a "sprawling and unsuccessful" Chinese disinformation network that targeted audiences in the United States, the United Kingdom and Chinese-speaking audiences in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet.

United States accused of intimidation

The first statements, which come from a fake account attributed to a "Swiss biologist" called Wilson Edwards, appeared on July 24.

Posted on Facebook and Twitter, they claimed that "WHO sources and a number of fellow researchers" complained of "enormous pressure and even intimidation" from the United States over the issue. of the WHO plan to renew the investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.

This information comes from a November report from Meta.

Indeed, since 2020, the WHO investigation has become a source of tension between the United States, China and other countries.

These publications were picked up overwhelmingly by Chinese state media, such as the Shanghai Daily, the People's Daily, and the Global Times.

After reviewing the public reports, Facebook deleted 524 Facebook accounts, 20 pages, four groups, and 86 Instagram accounts.

A state affair

So who is behind this campaign?

The disinformation operation required the creation of a fake account, that of Wilson Edwards.

Then several hundred more fake accounts and a minority of genuine accounts amplified the message.

"This is the first time that we have observed an operation which includes a coordinated group of state employees and which is amplified in this way", adds the Meta group, adding to have discovered "links with individuals in China Mainland, including employees of Sichuan Silence Information Technology Co Ltd and individuals associated with Chinese state-owned infrastructure companies based around the world ”. Sichuan Silence Information is a network and information security company. It provides technical support to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and CNCERT, the team that coordinates China's emergency cybersecurity response.

The other accounts are said to be linked to people working at Chinese state infrastructure companies.

More specifically, companies producing electricity, civil engineering, telecommunications and transport.

An ineffective campaign

Meta, however, wishes to reassure.

According to the group's report, the social media campaign was "largely unsuccessful".

The creators of the disinformation campaign used a virtual personal network (VPN) infrastructure.

The goal is to hide his origin and give Edwards a more plausible personality.

Her profile photo also appears to have been generated using machine learning capabilities.

Indeed, the Swiss embassy said on August 10 that it was unlikely that this person exists.

The Facebook account was created two weeks before its first publication and had only three friends.

According to the Swiss diplomatic mission, "there is no record of a Swiss citizen named Wilson Edwards and no academic article by that name."

The embassy called the Chinese media to remove all references to that person.

By the Web

Misinformation: Twitter removes nearly 3,500 government propaganda accounts

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