Meta and Twitter removed accounts deceptively promoting pro-US narratives

News in brief

Meta and Twitter removed two overlapping groups of accounts in July and August for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and “platform manipulation and spam”, respectively, a Stanford study found.

The accounts used “deceptive tactics” to promote pro-Western narratives in the Middle East and Central Asia over the past five years, including rhetoric highly critical of Russia, China, and Iran.

It is the first time social media platforms have discovered and removed pro-US influence campaigns.

The researchers at Stanford discovered the tactics generally had relatively limited direct effects, with the “vast majority” of posts receiving no more than a handful of likes or retweets, though a small number of posts did go viral.