Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said it had stopped influencer and hacking campaigns targeting its users in Ukraine. The effort involved people in Russia and Ukraine, as well as a hacker group believed to be linked to Belarus, according to Meta executives.
One operation circulated links to misleading news articles that claimed Ukraine was a "failed state" and contained messages of support for the Russian government. Meta said it had uncovered evidence that the effort was related to another operation the company reported in 2020 that involved two publishers, News Front and South Front. They have long been used to spread propaganda.
That campaign had fewer than 5,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram before it was disabled, according to Meta.
Meta reported that the disinformation campaign was also active on other social networks and messengers, including Twitter, YouTube, VK, Odnoklassniki and Telegram.
Meta said it also discovered the Ghostwriter hacking operation that targeted military leaders and politicians in Ukraine, as well as at least one journalist. The attackers tried to take over the accounts and then use them to spread misinformation.
Ghostwriter has been targeting politicians in Eastern Europe for several years now, often promoting anti-NATO and US narratives. For a long time it was believed that the hacker group was connected to Russia, but in November it was revealed that the group was working from Belarus.
According to Meta executives, a small number of high-profile individuals were the target of the attack, and several Facebook accounts were compromised. Posts on these accounts attempted to portray the surrender of the Ukrainian military by posting videos of soldiers walking out of the woods with a white flag. In some cases, Facebook has been able to block hacker posts.
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