August 24, 2024
By Nasser Kandil
- The extent of restrictions imposed by social media platforms on any media activity associated with resistance forces, their ideology, or culture is well known, particularly when that activity is influential and persistent. Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, is at the forefront of these efforts.
- Yesterday, Meta issued an unexpected statement revealing the results of its crackdown on activities violating its publishing guidelines. The company disclosed that a Vietnamese firm had managed campaigns worth $1.2 million, including the “Lebanon Doesn’t Want War” campaign. These campaigns, along with others, were orchestrated through fake accounts that Meta’s monitoring systems identified and disabled.
- Meta’s statement may be an attempt to create a sense of balance for resistance supporters who feel targeted by the network’s biassed standards, suggesting they are not the only ones under scrutiny. It could also be a political message to the company’s undisclosed operators or a signal directed at Hezbollah. However, the most significant revelation is that a campaign, presented as a strong expression of Lebanese public opinion opposing the resistance, was, in fact, a covert intelligence operation managed from abroad – so much so that even Meta’s standards could no longer ignore it.
- The Vietnamese company might have been funded by the occupying entity to run the campaign, or the funding could have come from an intermediary within an alliance involving the occupying entity, as part of a division of roles with its allies. These allies, including certain Arab states, provide resources like food and oil while opening land routes to break the siege imposed by Yemen on the entity. Even if a third party is involved, their sole purpose in this campaign would be to serve the occupying entity within a framework of mutual benefit and task-sharing among allies. Ultimately, the true operator appears to be the occupying entity, as the individuals presented as the campaign’s Lebanese front were not the actual operators. According to Meta, they were a group of young Lebanese businessmen, supported by a Gulf advertising executive, but in reality, the operation was orchestrated by a network based in Vietnam.
- Meta’s statement effectively serves as a formal report to the public prosecutor, urging immediate action to pursue those involved in the crime of collaborating with foreign entities, with further details to emerge during the investigation.
