Social Media Giants Battle Fake Accounts, State Actors

0:00On March 11, social media giants are cracking down on fake accounts and manipulation from state actors. Executives from X, Metta, and Google report to spending millions of inauthentic profiles last year alone. Russia leads as the top offender, followed by Iran and China, with efforts aimed at sewing division, especially around elections. X's government affairs head told UK lawmakers they booted over 799 million accounts in 2024 for spam and platform, tricks. He stressed daily attempts to build fake networks, particularly Russian ones targeting the U.S. presidential race to erode trust in institutions. Still, he expressed confidence that active users are genuine. In the UK, X faced backlash for amplifying rumors after the South Port tragedy that killed three girls. Elon Musk has long highlighted bots as a core issue, pushing aggressive enforcement. Twitter revealed it dismantled 200 coordinated networks since 2017, and is ramping up election

1:02monitoring for 2026 votes. Google terminated over 1,256 Russia-linked YouTube channels in late 2025, plus blocking domains from news, feeds. These firms keep fighting back with mass takedowns, detection tools, and regular reports, staying vigilant as influence ops evolve worldwide.