Latest reports suggest that Meta –Facebook’s parent company– has found and dismantled accounts that are posing as fake nonprofits to play down the dangers of deforestation.
In its first quarterly adversarial threat report, the company found that Individuals from the Brazilian military were behind climate disinformation propaganda.
The report showed that the accounts were traced back to individuals with ties to the Brazilian military, adding that the Brazilian network is the first operation to have been disrupted that primarily focused on environmental issues.
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In the report, Meta revealed that the unidentified network, which was limited in scale and authentic engagement, used fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram to post initially about land reform and the pandemic in 2020 before turning its focus to environmental issues last year.
The company said, “In 2021, they created Pages that posed as fictitious NGOs and activists focused on environmental issues in the Amazonas region of Brazil,”. “They posted about deforestation, including arguing that not all of it is harmful, and criticizing legitimate environmental NGOs who spoke out against deforestation in the Amazon”.
It added that although the people behind (the network) attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, the investigation found links to individuals associated with the Brazilian Military.
Story was adapted from Metro.
