Russia resorting to spammer tactics to control online conversations about Ukraine war, says Meta

Meta has said that Russia is resorting to spammer tactics to spread Ukraine war propaganda. The social media company shared the observation after more sophisticated influence operations at Facebook and Instagram were thwarted. Meta said that Russia is using thousands of fake accounts to control online conversations about the war. It has even set up bogus versions of news websites at similar online addresses, Meta said in a threat report.

"This activity bears a closer resemblance to what you might see from a spammer's playbook rather than the more stealthy and sophisticated Russian influence operations we have disrupted in the past," Meta head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a briefing.

Meta says that user engagement with Russian state news outlet misinformation dropped more than 80 per cent.

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"While overt activity by Russian state controlled media on our platforms has decreased, attempts at covert activity have increased sharply," said Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg.

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Gleicher said that Meta informs researchers and other social networks about such tactics to expose deception campaigns.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Meta worked to ensure that state news outlets weren't using its platform to spread misinformation about the war, Gleicher recounted. The company also made sure that no one was using bogus reports about the war to make money.

Clegg says that Meta took down two Russian covert influence campaigns last year that were trying to hijack online exchanges about the war by deploying comments from several fake accounts.

"Rather than trying to build up convincing fake personas these campaigns resembled smash-and-grab operations that use thousands of fake accounts across social media, not just our platforms, in an attempt to overwhelm the conversation with their content," Clegg said.

The propaganda campaign targetted Telegram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, Meta reported,Gleicher added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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