The owner of Facebook states that companies are adjusting and altering strategies to evade efforts to halt their operations
According to a report by Facebook’s parent company, Meta, the use of spyware to target people, including journalists and activists, is a persistent threat. Meta warned that surveillance-for-hire companies are adapting and changing tactics to avoid shutdowns. The report details Meta’s efforts to remove several firms, including those linked to Russia, Israel, and China, accused of scraping private information from Facebook and Instagram to compromise user accounts.
Meta has reported removing over 100 accounts associated with Avalanche, a Russian company that sells access to a platform for spying on the internet. The company targeted individuals and groups, including environmental activists, politicians, NGOs in the US, and members of the media. Meta also removed other companies, including Social Links based in New York (originally in Russia) and Cyberglobes in Israel, from its platforms.
Meta has admitted that some banned companies from last year have tried to evade detection by updating their software and circumventing the ban. Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy, said Meta is sharing information about the threats with governments and tech companies to minimize the risk to users. However, Gleicher also pointed out that Twitter seems to no longer be accepting information about such threats.
During a call about the Meta report, Nathaniel Gleicher stated that their main objective is to safeguard individuals and they share their learnings with other companies. However, Twitter is currently undergoing changes and the majority of individuals they had previously worked with have left, so they have to wait and see what their stance will be regarding threats. According to Forbes, Twitter’s security, privacy, and compliance leaders all departed from the company within two weeks of its acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk.
Gleicher stressed that it is impossible for a single company to address a societal challenge like spyware. He added that spyware firms are always willing to attempt to return and rebuild their operations.
According to Meta, some spyware vendors claim their software targets criminals and terrorists, but Meta’s threat research found it is regularly used to target journalists, political opposition, and human rights activists worldwide.
Meta’s report highlighted that the spyware vendors are part of a vast industry that offers invasive software and surveillance services to customers without considering the target or the possible human rights violations they may cause. The report noted that this industry “democratizes” these threats, making them accessible to both government and non-government organizations that would otherwise lack the capability to cause harm.
Meta reported that it closed down a network of 900 false Facebook and Instagram accounts originating from China that targeted military personnel, politicians, pro-democracy activists, journalists, and government workers in China, India, Myanmar, Taiwan, and the United States. The companies mentioned in the report, Avalanche, Social Links, and Cyberglobes, did not respond to requests for comment.
