Reset Tech Report
Under the Radar:
Vast Networks of Fake Accounts Raise Questions About Meta’s Compliance with the EU’s New Digital Rulebook.
Download the full reportExecutive summary
Reset Tech discovered an advertising network of at least 242,000 fake Facebook pages. The ads propagated by the network across the European Union promote both Russian propaganda and consumer scams, suggesting that the advertising network operates for pay.
The network has grown exponentially since 2022, spending tens of thousands of euros on ads that violate Meta’s own Terms of Service. While the Russian propaganda ads primarily targeted French and German audiences, the commercial ads promoted potentially dangerous scam products, phishing, and malware to audiences in over 32 countries.
Meta has known about the network since at least September 2022, but to this day, it has failed to discontinue its malign activities, thus causing significant risks for consumers and jeopardizing democratic integrity in the EU. In view of next year’s European elections, our findings beg the question: How does Meta intend to prevent the network from being used for targeting disinformation and Russian propaganda at millions of voters?
Without effective mitigation from Meta, the limit on the network’s size is infinite, given that new accounts can be set up by automated means at almost no cost. Meta’s apparent failure to detect a basic form of automation further raises questions about the company’s ability to tackle more sophisticated automation, such as swaths of content produced by generative AI.
Reset Tech also identified a second ecosystem of three interconnected networks engaged in similar malign activity. This ecosystem exceeds 340,000 fake pages. Failure to mitigate the risks caused by large-scale inauthentic activity on the platform raises further questions about Meta’s compliance with the EU’s new digital rulebook, the Digital Services Act.