Facebook parent company Meta has detected fake accounts attempting to stir up controversy around the United States midterm elections, it announced Tuesday (Sept. 27).

According to Meta, the accounts were set up by Chinese individuals posing as Americans. Those individuals then attacked politicians from both sides of the aisle and posted controversial material.

Meta says there were about 84 Facebook accounts within the fake network and they were taken down before they had a chance to widen their reach. They were not attributed to Chinese intelligence agencies, but rather individuals working in the country.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 the first time weB次元官网网址檝e seen that from a Chinese operation in this way. So even though it was small, even though we caught it early, itB次元官网网址檚 a significant change in what weB次元官网网址檝e seen from Chinese operations,B次元官网网址� Ben Nimmo, MetaB次元官网网址檚 head of threat intelligence, said in a statement.

He added that the tech giant is in a better position to assess the threats than in the past, however. In 2016, Nimmo said, there were only a few open-source researchers serving as a defensive team.B次元官网网址淲hat I see now is there really is that joined-up approach. ThereB次元官网网址檚 a team effort that goes across platforms, news outlets, and open-source institutions. So there are far more people playing defence,B次元官网网址� Nimmo said.

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