Meta warns that spyware is being used to target people on social media!

Meta warned that the use of spyware to indiscriminately target people, including journalists and activists, is a persistent threat because hired surveillance companies continue to adapt and change tactics in the face of efforts to shut down their capabilities.

A report by Facebook's parent company found that the social media group had found that Meta had "scraped" Facebook and Instagram for users' private information in an attempt to "endanger" users' accounts.

In one case, Meta said he removed more than 100 accounts on Facebook and Instagram linked to a company called Avalanche in Russia, where he said sold access to a platform that allowed online spying. Meta said a large number of individuals and groups were targeted using the Russian network, including environmental activists, members of the media, NGOs and politicians in the United States. Other companies that have been removed from their meta platform include a New York-based company called Social Links, originally based in Russia, and Cyberglobes, based in Israel.

At the same time, Meta acknowledged that other companies it tried to ban from their platforms last year were also trying to circumvent blocks on Meta's platforms, following accusations that the groups' software was being used to target thousands of users with malicious activities, and that they were updating their software to try to evade detection.

Meta's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said the company is trying to share information about the threats with governments and other tech companies to reduce the threat to users. But Gleicher also acknowledged that a major player in the social media industry — Twitter — no longer seems fit to hear about such threats.

"Our main goal is to do everything we can to protect people. That's why we share our insights with our industry colleagues. Twitter is going through a transition right now, and most of the people we've dealt with have moved on. As a result, we should wait and see what they will announce in these threat areas."

Forbes reported in November that Twitter's security, privacy, and compliance leaders all left the company less than two weeks after the company was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk.

Gleicher stressed that no company alone can overcome such a "community-wide" challenge as spyware. "They [the spyware companies] are very ready to come back and rebuild their business," Gleicher said.

Meta said some spyware vendors used to target their users sometimes claim that their software is aimed at focusing on criminals and terrorists, but Meta's own threat investigation found that the software is used "on a regular basis" to target "journalists, political dissent and human rights." activists around the world".

"These companies are part of an expanding industry that provides indiscriminate intrusive software tools and surveillance services to any client, regardless of who they are targeting or the human rights violations they may cause," the meta report said. In a way, this industry is 'democratizing' these threats and making them available to government and non-governmental groups that would otherwise not have these damaging capabilities."

In one case, Meta said he shut down a network of 900 fake Instagram and Facebook accounts operating from China, apparently focused on people in Myanmar, India, Taiwan, the U.S. and China, including military personnel, pro-democracy activists and the government.