The United States topped a list of the countries most frequently targeted by deceptive foreign influence operations using Facebook between 2017 and 20

U.S. a top target for foreign and domestic influence operations, says new Facebook report

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2021-05-26 18:30:15

The United States topped a list of the countries most frequently targeted by deceptive foreign influence operations using Facebook between 2017 and 2020, the social media company said in a new report released on Wednesday.

It also came second on a list of countries targeted by domestic influence operations in that same time period. Facebook Inc (FB.O) said one of the top sources of coordinated inauthentic behavior networks targeting the United States in the year leading up to the 2020 presidential election was domestic campaigns originating in the United States itself, as well as foreign operations from Russia and Iran.

The tallies were based on the number of "coordinated inauthentic behavior" networks removed by Facebook, a term it uses for a type of influence operations that relies on fake accounts to mislead users and manipulate the public debate for strategic ends.

Facebook began cracking down on these influence operations after 2016, when U.S. intelligence concluded that Russia used the platform as part of a cyber-influence campaign that aimed to help former President Donald Trump win the White House, a claim Moscow has denied.

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