On Meta Group’s platforms, disinformation campaigns are increasingly powered by artificial intelligence (AI). That comes from a Company Threat Report for Q2 2024 out. Meta also said it had blocked six new covert operations from Russia, Vietnam and the United States. The company calls such actions “coordinated inauthentic behavior” (CIB).
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Meta, AI-generated or AI-assisted activities took place in multiple places online. “A fake campaign from Russia published a large number of stories on purported news sites that closely resembled real articles on the internet, including articles from mainstream media outlets,” the report said. “We believe the stories were likely summaries of the originals and used AI to make them more unique.” The same campaign published AI-generated news videos on YouTube and invented fictional journalists who appeared in different places on the internet with the same photo. This continues a trend the company has been observing since 2019.
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A campaign that Meta calls “doppelgängers” is difficult to stop. For two years now, attention has been paid to fake news that poses as well-known and reputable media. The ads through which the actors distribute the alleged articles are spread across numerous websites and social media channels. The URLs of the news pages often look serious at first glance, as the names of well-known media appear only slightly modified.
The doppelganger campaign used AI-generated images to evade automatic detection, Meta suspects. In addition, the campaign also likely used AI tools to create posts and translate postings. Russia remains the main source of global networks that Meta has disrupted over the past seven years. The company registered 39 campaigns, followed by Iran with 30 campaigns and China with eleven campaigns.
Focus on activities, not content
Particularly considering the upcoming US elections in November, the company believes that campaigns from Russia will increasingly focus on Ukraine. While activities previously covered a wide range, the group has seen an increase against Ukraine since 2022.
Meta is particularly monitoring activities related to AI. The group currently believes that AI will be used primarily to generate additional content and increase the productivity of disinformation campaigns. The approach of focusing on behavior rather than content continues to work so far, the report says.
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