The parent company of Facebook and Instagram has exposed a network of social media accounts based in China, responsible for “inauthentic behaviour” targeting India. This operation focused on the global Sikh community and attempted to influence the debate around the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

The network was responsible for creating 37 Facebook accounts, 13 pages, five groups, and nine Instagram accounts, all in violation of Meta’s policies. The network, known as “Operation K,” operated under the guise of a fictitious activist movement and aimed to incite pro-Sikh protests, particularly in New Zealand and Australia.

“We removed 37 Facebook accounts, 13 Pages, five Groups, and nine accounts on Instagram for violating our policy against coordinated inauthentic behaviour. This network originated in China and targeted the global Sikh community, including in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, the UK, and Nigeria,” according to the company’s latest Quarterly Adversarial Threat Report.

“This activity– targeted at multiple services, including ours, Telegram and X (former Twitter) included several clusters of fake accounts, including one with links to an unattributed CIB network from China targeting India and the Tibet region that we disrupted in early 2023. Some of these clusters amplified one another with most of their engagement coming from their own fake accounts, likely to make this campaign appear more popular than it was,” the report added.

The network attempted to manipulate news and current events, including images that were likely altered using photo editing tools or generated by artificial intelligence. Topics of discussion included floods in the Punjab region, the Sikh community worldwide, the Khalistan movement, and criticism of the Indian government.

“They posted primarily in English and Hindi about news and current events, including images likely manipulated by photo editing tools or generated by artificial intelligence, in addition to posts about floods in the Punjab region, the Sikh community worldwide, the Khalistan independence movement, the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan independence activist in Canada, and criticism of the Indian government,” the report said.

Moreover, the network amplified its own content by using fake accounts to garner engagement, thereby creating a false impression of popularity. However, Meta’s automated systems detected and disabled several compromised and fake accounts associated with this network. It thwarted the network’s attempts to gain traction and prevent the spread of misinformation.