“They targeted activists, journalists and dissidents among Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities from Xinjiang in China living mainly abroad in Turkey, Kazakhstan, the United States and other countries, “Facebook said in a post Wednesday detailing its findings about the cyber espionage campaign.
“This group used fake Facebook accounts to create fake personalities standing as journalists, students, human rights advocates or members of the Uyghur community to build trust with their target and trying people. to click on malicious links, “the company said.
Some of the Facebook findings benefited from a search by FireEye, a cybersecurity company, Facebook said.
The U.S. State Department has previously estimated that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, in addition to members of other Muslim minorities, are being held in internment camps in the region.
The hockey groups identified as the backbone of the latest initiative in the cybersecurity industry are known as “Evil Eye” and “Earth Empusa” and have been involved in spying campaigns in the past, according to Facebook.
Facebook and other social media platforms have been widely criticized for allowing Russian trolls to become online Americans in the run-up to the 2016 election. Since then, Facebook has found some governments and other organizations to find it. publicly using its platform for nefarious purposes.