Facebook takes down network spreading COVID disinformation

In all, it removed about 600 accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were linked to the network

Facebook, now known as Meta, has removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to China to spread unfounded claims about the pandemic.

The bogus profiles claims the US pressured scientists to blame China for COVID-19.

An investigation found these claims were amplified by employees of Chinese state-run companies, soon becoming the subject of domestic news headlines.

In effect it worked like an online hall of mirrors, endlessly reflecting the original fake persona and its anti-US disinformation, Ben Nimmo, who leads investigations into disinformation at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said.

The social media company said one of the accounts belonged to a fictitious Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards.

In July, when the operation began, Mr Wilson’s profile claimed US officials were using ‘enormous pressure and even intimidation’ to get scientists to back calls for renewed investigations into the origin of coronavirus.

Within hours, hundreds of other accounts, some only created only that day, began liking, reposting or linking to the post.

Many of the accounts were later found to be fake, with some of the users posing as westerners and others using likely fabricated profile photos.

Facebook said it found links between the accounts and a tech firm based in Chengdu, China, as well as to overseas employees of Chinese infrastructure companies.

Within a week of the initial post, large media outlets in China were reporting on the claims as if they had been made by a real scientist.

The operation was exposed when Swiss authorities announced in August that they had no record of any biologist with that name.

In all, Meta removed about 600 accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were linked to the network.