Facebook has shut down a network of more than 150 fake profiles linked to China's "coordinated" political influence.
Most of these profiles were related to supporting Chinese interests, but there were also those who posted about the presidential elections in the United States of America (USA).
As they announced BBC, this is only the second time that Facebook has managed to identify several such fake accounts that originated in China.
This network had about 130 followers, some of whom were from the United States.
These accounts began operating in 2016, and most of the information posted was related to Chinese influence in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
The accounts in question were controlled by individuals resident in the Chinese province of Fujian, who were paid for ads with Chinese currency, Facebook said.
Much of the content of the posts was about promoting the interests of the Chinese state in the disputed South China Sea.
Several accounts had posted content related to US presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg before he dropped out of the race – as well as others supporting eventual party nominees Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Recently, Graphika, the social media analytics firm contracted by Facebook to research the accounts, discovered that some of them used an Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique known as a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to create fake profiles with photos that look real and trustworthy.
Analyze:
By Shayan Sardarzadeh from the BBC's counter-disinformation unit
The headlines of these posts, recently collected by Facebook as part of the analysis, depict Chinese efforts to interfere in the upcoming US elections.
Although this is a fact that should be taken seriously, for the time being, this finding should only be seen from one perspective and not be taken completely for granted.
First, this was a small operation that failed to create any large-scale impact before being removed from Facebook. The number of actual American voters who encountered its content is probably negligible.
Second, only a small portion of the operation's content was related to the US election. The content was also not in favor of or against a specific candidate.
Some of the content was supportive of President Trump, while some was in favor of Mr. Biden. One page that criticized Mr. Trump had no followers at all.
And third, much of the content was directly aligned with China's strategic and geopolitical interests, particularly in the South China Sea.
(BBC research)