Meta Cracks Down On AI-Generated Fake News Campaigns From Four Countries Including China And Russia: 'These Networks Are Inherently Adversarial'

Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms Inc. META has taken down numerous Facebook accounts linked to covert influence campaigns from various countries, including China, Iran, Russia and Israel. The campaigns reportedly used artificial intelligence tools to spread disinformation.

What Happened: Meta has been grappling with the use of AI by threat actors to create fake images, videos, and text, aiming to manipulate users on its platforms. Despite this, the company’s ability to disrupt these networks has not been significantly impacted, reported Bloomberg, citing Meta’s quarterly threat report that was released on Wednesday.

Meta’s report highlighted several disinformation campaigns, including a deceptive network from China that shared AI-generated poster images of a fictitious pro-Sikh movement. An Israel-based network was also identified for posting AI-generated comments praising Israel’s military under the pages of media organizations and public figures. 

See Also: Economist Paul Krugman Says Degradation Of Google And Other Search Engines Are Making His Job Difficult: ‘And AI Is Worse Than Useless’

The company managed to remove many of these networks before they could gain traction among genuine communities.

David Agranovich, Meta’s policy director of threat disruption, noted that while the current use of generative AI is not particularly sophisticated, these adversarial networks will continue to evolve their tactics as their technology advances.

“But we know that these networks are inherently adversarial,” he said on Tuesday during a press conference, adding, “They're going to keep evolving their tactics as their technology changes.”

Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox.

Why It Matters: Social media giants like Facebook, ByteDance-owned TikTok, and Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, are struggling with the proliferation of fake and misleading AI-generated content.

Just this year, altered audio clips purportedly of U.S. President Joe Biden and fabricated images depicting the Israel-Hamas conflict have circulated widely across social media.

In the wake of these developments, companies have started putting in more effort. Last month, Meta expanded its labels for AI-generated content to include photos and audio across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Earlier this month, TikTok also announced plans to automatically label AI-generated content amid deepfake and disinformation concerns.

Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, has also been highlighting the importance of identifying and categorizing AI-generated content, particularly as the company gears up for the 2024 election cycle.

Image source – Shutterstock

Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

Read Next: Former OpenAI Board Member Who Tried To Oust Sam Altman Says CEO Was Fired From Y Combinator And Another Startup For ‘Deceptive And Chaotic Behavior’

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.