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In a new security report, Meta reveals that Russia has been implementing many tactics to manipulate Americans’ opinions prior to the upcoming presidential elections. However, they claim that these efforts are failing.
Russia has apparently conducted multiple CIB (Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior) operations to influence users. CIB operations are actions taken by individuals or groups to deceive or manipulate public opinion by presenting false or misleading information in a coordinated manner. Meta says that Russia is currently the top source of CIB using fictitious social media accounts, having exposed 39 of these operations since 2017, with Iran having 30 CIB networks, and China 11.
With the rising influence of AI, Meta finds that GenAI-powered tactics provide only partial success for the actors and have not made it more difficult for the company to disrupt their influence operations.
Meta predicts that these Russia-based operations will focus on supporting the candidate who opposes giving assistance to Ukraine and criticizing those who advocate for it. Further, they say that instead of government agencies directly conducting influence operations, there are now commercial companies—hired contractors—running these campaigns. This indicates a shift from state-run to privately operated influence activities. These operations produce a large amount of content, but the quality of that content is poor. They also make significant mistakes in operational security, such as failing to cover their tracks properly. Meta has observed that these campaigns are often exposed by real users who recognize them as deceptive or troll-like, as the campaigns struggle to connect with genuine audiences and maintain credibility. Meta anticipates that this trend will continue, with more firms potentially getting involved in these deceptive practices. This is partly due to the increasing demand for such operations fueled by ongoing conflicts, like Russia’s war.
Further, it appears that recently, some Russian operations involved people in Armenia and Europe in creating content and amplifying their messages, some by choice and some unknowingly.
Meta revealed that Russian influence operations often target journalists and public figures to amplify their narratives by seeding them with hacked or forged materials. They urge these individuals and the public to stay vigilant to avoid aiding deceptive campaigns. Meta also advises political campaigns, candidates, and media outlets to maintain strong information security due to their attractiveness to hackers. To support this, Meta has implemented in-app reminders to help enhance account security for these high-risk groups.
