Russian Influence Campaigns Losing Steam on Meta Platforms
Russian Influence Campaigns Losing Steam on Meta Platforms
Russian influence operations on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram appear to be dwindling in comparison to its impact last year when Russia initiated its invasion of Ukraine. A report from Meta reveals tactical shifts and some regression in techniques to overcome new security controls from social media platforms have helped thwart activity from nefarious accounts generated by Russian actors. The most notable deviation is the shift from "stealthy and deceptive Russian influence operations" to one that bears "a closer resemblance to a spammers’ playbook.” This spam-like behavior is best described by Meta as the mass creation of "a large number of low-quality accounts all at once, in the hope that at least a few might survive,” to bypass detection efforts from social media platforms. Even those accounts that are able to persist aren't able to generate meaningful engagements, yielding a “low overall return.” With low impact on Meta's social media sites, Russian media have made public posts "urging followers to find them on other services instead."