Meta has outlined the latest developments in its evolving efforts to combat platform manipulation and hate speech, which have resulted in two significant network take-downs of late.

As outlined in Meta's latest "Adversarial Threat Report", Meta was recently able to remove two of the largest-known covert influence operations in the world, through a collaborative effort that could also help to chart a new way forward for future enforcement.

Both come from China and Russia, which, in the two programs, have targeted more than 50 social media applications, including Meta tools.

The Chinese operation has been branded by the cybersecurity community as 'Spamoflage', and entailed a multi-layered programmatic campaign to sway Western news media opinion through seeding positive comment about China and the CCP. The initiative also sought to target attacks on Western policies, but even specific journalists and researchers who have been critical of the Chinese Government. The initiative crossed thousands of accounts and pages.
The Russian operation meanwhile involved thousands of malicious website domains that had each been operating stories that mirrored the websites of mainstream news outlets and government entities, posting fake articles that had been aimed nearly exclusively at weakening support for Ukraine. The program targeted users in France, Germany, Ukraine, the U.S., and Israel.
Meta says that these massive operations, run across several social platforms and websites for some time, means this latest takedown may also result in criminal prosecution in their states, which could take a big chunk out of the influence operations space.

It's a major step and Meta's welcomed the more collaborative approach that has brought it to this place, which it also hopes will act as an incentive to other bad actors next time.

As well as this Meta's published a new study of the effects of six network disruptions of banned hate-based organizations on Facebook.

The research found that de-platforming these entities through network disruptions can help to make the ecosystem less hospitable for the designated dangerous organizations. While those closest to the core audience of these hate groups exhibit signs of backlash in the short term, evidence indicates that they reduce their engagement with the network and with hateful content over time. It also suggests that our strategies can reduce the ability of hate organizations to successfully operate online.

This is also a significant step, as this suggests more effective approaches in combating the spread of hate speech online.

Social media's network effect assists in connecting users with similar-minded people regardless of the location, which obviously is positive, but it also allows hate groups to expand their reach and recruit more members through the same process.

This research could, therefore, provide new guidance on just the kind of better ways to mitigate such and what establishing them may entail as a huge step.

Meta's has also outlined its approach to combating influence operations on Threads and how it is building this into the new app's foundations, while it also shared new insights into how it is looking to tackle misuse of its generative AI tools through colliding with researchers to seek out vulnerabilities.

Meta is looking to take better steps to tackle these important challenges through live "stress tests." Already, they are driving better results through expanded collaboration.