Meta Removes Fake Accounts Focused On Covid-19 Misinformation

Meta, the new name of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, said it has taken down some accounts on its platforms.

It had said that the accounts were to promote false information of the Covid-19.

One of the accounts includes a Chinese owned account, a “swiss biologist” named Wilsons Edward.

Meta had claimed that the account had originated fake claims in which had an influence operation on its platform.

The fake claim led to a full-blown campaign claiming the US was interfering in search of Covid-19 origin.

Although, Meta had reported that the campaign was unsuccessful as it was quickly notified.

Interestingly, the campaign was targeted at the United States, Britain and Chines speaking individuals in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet.

However, social media platforms had picked the news up.

Media houses all over China had also picked up the statement of the “swiss Chinese” and all over the world.

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However, after looking into their system, they realised that the man wasn’t a swiss citizen.

And this led Facebook to remove the “swiss biologist” account created less than 11 hours before the posts.

Also, Facebook removed over 600 others from its platforms.

They had been using VPN infrastructure to conceal their origin, said Meta.

David Agranovich, Meta’s head of global threat disruption, spoke on how the company was able to link the accounts.

“We…were able to link the activity to individuals in mainland China, including employees of a particular company in China, the Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company Limited, as well as some individuals associated with Chinese state infrastructure companies around the world,” he said.

However, the company has not given any official statement concerning this.

“This is the first time we have observed an operation that included a coordinated cluster of state employees to amplify itself in this way,” Meta said after its research.

Also, it explained that the company does not have any direct link with the Chinese government.