As we spend an increasing amount of our lives interacting with one another on social media, the case for safety on a virtual scale has never been as important as it is now. Inevitably, this has led to social media companies themselves to ramp up efforts in combatting such threats that could potentially occur within their periphery.
In the case of Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, they have taken it upon themselves to publish an Adversarial Threat Report, which is released on a quarterly-basis. The report serves to provide comprehensive insights into the risks encountered by the company’s threat and research and analysis, which includes offences as cyber espionage, mass reporting, amplification, and other similarly malicious behaviours by bad actors.
Meta shuts down ‘troll farm’ originating in Malaysia
What proves most interesting in the case of the company’s latest report, published for the second quarter of 2022, is their claim that they have summarily taken down what amounts to a ‘troll farm’ originating out of Malaysia. This comes after Meta claims that they have detected signs of Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour (CIB) occurring locally, which is explained as the use of multiple social media accounts or pages to influence and/or mislead people for political or financial gain.
Based on the report, which you can read in its entirety here, the aforementioned troll farm consisted of 596 Facebook accounts, 180 Pages, 11 Groups and 72 Instagram accounts, all of which formed a massive network intended to sway, inveigle and manipulate local public discourse about who is behind them.
Members were found to be active on multiple social media platforms, including on Facebook, Instagram, as well as rival sites such as Twitter and TikTok, where they would post memes in Malay that supported the current ruling government, which the company notes, has been facing claims of corruption. In the case of Facebook, Meta claims that members of the group owned and managed a number of Pages, some of which masqueraded as independent news sites.
Claims that it had ties to the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM)
Accelerated activity would typically be detected around peak traffic hours on weekdays, such as during lunch hours for maximum reach. However, the company notes that social media accounts used by the group were often scant on development and would even use stolen profile pictures. Some were immediately disabeled by Facebook’s automated systems.
Initially, researchers at Clemson University had believed that the activity had originated from China. But further investigation by Meta now claims that the troll farm had ties with the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM).
“We found this network after reviewing information about a small portion of this activity initially suspected to have originated in China by researchers at Clemson University.
Although the people behind it attempted to conceal their identity and coordination, our investigation found links to the Royal Malaysia Police,”
The group had even spent around $6,000 (RM26,741.40) for ads on both Facebook and Instagram, which were paid for in Ringgit. All accounts associated with the troll farm have since been disabled by Meta.
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