courtesy: France 24
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Someone in China had created thousands of fake social media accounts, which were to be used to spread polarizing the political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year’s elections, Meta said Thursday.
The network of 4,800 fake accounts was attempting to build an audience when it was caught and eliminate by Facebook parent company. The accounts consisted of fake pictures, locations, names as a way to appear like everyday American Facebook users weighing in on political issues.
Instead of spreading fake information as other networks have done, the accounts were used to reshare the post from X, formerly known as Twitter, that were created by some news outlets or a politician. The interlinked accounts were designed to pull out content from both conservative and liberal political party. This was their attempt to showcase that they do not only favour one side, but were trying to exaggerate partisan divisions and further inflame polarization.
Not only America, but in the upcoming year, many countries such as India, Pakistan, Ukraine, Taiwan, Mexico and other will be conducting elections. Such networks pose threats to any such election.