Under the Radar: - Vast Networks of Fake Accounts Raise Questions About Meta’s

The mere scope of the networks and the common characteristics of their individual assets suggest that they were generated with the help of automated software or scripts. [...] The copy followed the exact same pattern, schematically enumerating the ingredients and then listing the steps for the preparation of the meal. [...] In early 2023, the network also launched political ads in Ukrainian,17 Arabic,18 and Italian.19 The political ads in German and French promoted pro-Kremlin narratives in the context of the war in Ukraine: blaming NATO and the West for leading a proxy war in Ukraine, fearmongering about WWIII and the looming economic and energy crises, criticising the politics of the US and the EU, promoting fake p. [...] Conclusion and recommendations The presence of vast networks of latent fake advertisers, unrestrained by Meta, is problematic both with regards to the company’s approach to the detection of automated accounts generally and the prevention of harmful behaviour performed by anonymous pages in particular. [...] In certain instances, the advertisers' profile may also be completely deleted or displayed as "Page has been unpublished or deleted." This approach hinders the accurate assessment of the impact of malicious advertising, obscures the true scale of problematic advertising behaviours on the platform, and limits the availability of evidence to researchers and investigators.