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Compatible with hackers Russia Dozens of Ukrainian military officials hacked into their social media accounts and were working to upload videos of Ukrainian soldiers defeated and surrendered when the plot was foiled, according to a Meta report Thursday detailing a troubling rise in social media disinformation this year.
The report, by the owner of Facebook and Instagram, found an increase in content linked to: RussiaThe invasion of Ukraine and new cases of internal disinformation and propaganda in countries around the world suggest that tactics spearheaded by foreign intelligence agencies are now being used more widely.
“While public attention has focused on foreign intervention in recent years, domestic threats are increasing globally,” said Nick Clegg, Meta’s head of global affairs and former UK deputy prime minister.
Russia and its allies are key players internally reinforcing pro-Russian conspiracy theories, according to the report, as they spread disinformation about Kremlin groups’ invasion of Ukraine.
Meta traced the effort to hijack the social media accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military leaders to an obscure hacker organization known as Ghostwriter, formerly linked to a Russian ally, Belarus. Ghostwriter has a history of spreading content critical of NATO and has also attempted to hack email accounts.
“It’s a tried-and-true thing they do,” said Ben Read, director of cyberespionage analysis at Mandiant, a leading US cybersecurity firm that has tracked Ghostwriter’s activities for years. Last year, Mandiant said digital clues suggested the hackers were based in Belarus, but EU officials had previously blamed it. Russia.
Belarus and Russia did not respond to the allegations.
The report outlined other disinformation efforts. RussiaIt invaded Ukraine, including dozens of fake accounts that spread anti-Ukrainian rhetoric. Another network filed thousands of false complaints about Ukrainian Facebook users to get them kicked off the platform. This network hid its activities in a Facebook group supposedly dedicated to cooking.
Inside RussiaThe Kremlin blocked hundreds of news sources and websites, including Facebook and Twitter, and threatened to jail anyone who tried to cover the war. Instead of proper journalism, the state-controlled media pumped discredited conspiracy theories about Ukrainian Nazis or secret US bioweapons labs.
Meta and other major tech companies responded by removing or restricting Russian state media, targeting disinformation networks, and tagging content they didn’t remove. Twitter announced this week that it will also tag state-controlled media from Belarus.
The prevalence of Russian-linked propaganda and disinformation on social media indicates the need for a more aggressive response, according to the Centre, a London-based nonprofit that supports greater social media regulation. A study by the group found lots of mentions from Facebook. Russia‘s discredited bioweapons conspiracy theory.
“Despite taking action under tremendous pressure against state channels, the Meta has grossly failed to contain massive narratives of disinformation that benefit the Putin regime,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the centre.
Meta said it will release additional policies in the coming weeks and months to ensure it stays ahead of groups that want to take advantage of its platform. Meta’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, noted that groups seeking to spread disinformation and propaganda have also changed their tactics.
“We would expect them to keep coming back,” Gleicher said.
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