HONG KONG – A China-based online network tried to recruit protesters in Europe and set up a media firm in Britain as part of a disinformation campaign, according to Facebook owner Meta.

The network’s social media accounts, which ranged from Facebook to YouTube, Telegram and Twitter, pushed content focusing on incendiary political issues in Europe and the United States.

Meta said it removed more than 100 Facebook pages, profiles and Instagram accounts linked to the network, accusing them of violating its policies against coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

Another 50 accounts linked to another China-based network were also taken down.

“These latest networks experimented with a range of tactics we haven’t seen in China-based operations before,” Meta said in its quarterly Adversarial Threat Report, published on Wednesday.

“The latest behaviours included creating a front media company in the West, hiring freelance writers around the world, offering to recruit protesters, and co-opting an NGO (non-governmental organisation) in Africa,” it said.

While Meta has taken down some of the accounts, much of the network’s content remains online.

On Twitter, an account named in the Meta report called New Europe Observation shared incendiary content attacking migrants to Europe and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists until as recently as April 28.

One tweet by the group from August 2022 said it was hiring “part-timers” to attend a protest in Hungary against billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a financier who is frequently a target of far-right conspiracy theories.

Some of its Twitter posts used viral tweets from far-right accounts.

Interspersed with the Europe-focused messaging was content pushing Beijing’s line on its policies in China’s western region of Xinjiang, where activists accuse the authorities of detaining more than one million Uighurs and other Muslims in forced re-education camps.

Another account that Meta said was run by the network focused more closely on divisive issues in the US, including police brutality, crime and LGBT rights.

The network was run through a Britain-based front company called London New Europe, Meta said, which company records and Google Maps showed operated out of a nondescript apartment building in north-east London.

The group sought to hire central Asian freelance writers to produce content, as well as “tried to engage individuals to record English-language videos scripted by the network”, Meta said.

Meta said that while the network took steps to conceal its origins and the identities of those involved, it found links to a Chinese company called Xi’an Tianwendian Network Technology.

It also operated from 9am to 5pm, China time, with a dip in activity during lunchtime, Meta said.

Chinese company records seen by Agence France-Presse showed the company’s boss had the same name as a Chinese national listed as a director of London New Europe in Britain.

Another China-based group primarily focused on India and Tibet named in the report spent US$73,000 (S$97,000) on Facebook advertising, Meta said.

Twitter and Facebook are officially blocked in mainland China, with users requiring banned virtual private networks to use their websites and apps.

Russia has long been accused of operating “troll farms” in a bid to influence public opinion in the West, with China not having been regarded as advanced in that area.

But Meta said the latest networks it uncovered signalled that China-based operations were becoming more sophisticated.

The US authorities also said in April they charged a group of Chinese Ministry of Public Security officers, saying they operated a network of social media accounts spreading pro-Beijing messaging.

And in February, research firm Graphika revealed that it discovered a China-linked network promoting a fictitious news outlet called Wolf News that used artificial intelligence-generated anchors to spread pro-Beijing talking points. AFP