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State
Department

Cyabra Helped the U.S. State Department to Identify Fake Discourse and Foreign Influence

30,000
profiles scanned
on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
33%
fake profiles
identified by Cyabra
40%
of the content created
was fake

With relations between U.S. and China increasingly heated, the U.S. State Department turned to Cyabra to identify foreign influence and adversarial threats on social media.

Cyabra discovered that 33% of the profiles in the discourse were fake.

“Large audience provides a large opportunity for nefarious actors to use it as a hook to either push new types of disinformation narratives or to connect long-standing disinformation narratives to exploit this new opportunity. Cyabra has really done a great job at identifying the information and just presenting it to you in a way that you can best make a decision.”

Vincent O'Brien

Foreign Service Officer, USA State Dept.

The Challenge

  • In May 2020, the heated trade war between China and the U.S, together with COVID-19, brought a peak in related discourse on social networks.
  • The U.S. State Department sought to understand the conversations taking place across social media, to identify foreign influence and propaganda within the spreading narratives.

The Solution

Cyabra scanned over 30,000 profiles that participated in conversations on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and discovered that 33% of them were fake, promoting content trying to sway public opinion on China-related issues. Connections were found between Chinese official accounts and fake communities, each amplifying different agendas.

Overall, 40% of the content in the discourse was fake. Some of the fake communities engaged solely with American profiles, actively discrediting criticism of the Chinese government.

About U.S State Department

The U.S State Department is responsible for the country’s foreign policy and relations. The State Department works to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining the U.S.