In a study conducted by researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory and research company Graphika, it was found that pro-US covert influence operations utilized deceptive techniques to sway public opinion in West Asia and Central Asia for over five years.
The accounts running the activities posted articles in at least seven languages, including Farsi, Russian, Arabic, and Urdu, and frequently pretended to be news organizations or to be persons who weren't real.
Some of the accounts posted links to websites maintained by the US military as well as news pieces from media organizations financed by Washington, such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.
The country of origin of the accounts, according to Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, was the United States, while according to Twitter; the presumptive countries of origin for the accounts were the United States and Britain.
The study also stated that in July and August, when the fraudulent pro-US influence campaign was being promoted, Twitter and Meta erased hundreds of phony accounts.
The Russian social media networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, Google's YouTube, and Telegram were all utilized in the activities.
According to YouTube, multiple channels that were promoting US foreign policy in Arabic, Farsi, and Russian, as well as channels connected to a US consulting business, were removed. Based on the researchers, the accounts used regionally specific language and message.
Between November 2020 and June 2022, a total of 21 Twitter accounts, six Instagram accounts, five Facebook profiles, and two Facebook pages allegedly targeted Iranian audiences.
It was revealed that several of the aliases had possibly artificial intelligence-generated profile images.
Many made an effort to appear authentic by sprinkling poems and images of Persian cuisine with political messaging.
Numerous posts on Facebook and Instagram also unfairly contrasted chances for Iranian women with those available to women abroad.
In addition, 12 Twitter accounts, 10 Facebook pages, 15 Facebook profiles, and 10 Instagram accounts were made with a Central Asian concentration between June 2020 and March 2022.
These accounts subsequently posted articles that sharply denounced Russia's military campaign in Ukraine and supported anti-Russian demonstrations taking place in Central Asian nations.
Another set of reports honed down on West Asia, praising US efforts in Iraq and using encounters between US troops and Syrian children to support Washington's occupation of Syrian territory and theft of the natural riches of the Arab nation.
The research shows that none of the propaganda tactics were successful in reaching a sizable audience.
Only 19% of the discovered covert accounts had more than 1,000 followers, and the majority of posts and tweets only garnered a handful of likes or retweets.
The study is one of the most thorough evaluations to date of a covert, pro-US influence campaign, according to Shelby Grossman, a member of the research team that published the report.
