00:00What's been uncovered in this Australian research by local company CyberCX is thousands, potentially,
00:09of inauthentic accounts that have been generated.
00:13It's understood by a Beijing-based artificial intelligence business.
00:18And these fake accounts are increasingly engaging with divisive political discourse online.
00:26CyberCX says it's been getting more sophisticated over recent weeks, and it believes that it
00:32could be used to target the upcoming US presidential elections due to be held in November.
00:39Some of these accounts have also been engaging with Australian content, with messages to
00:46do with divisive issues here in Australia as well.
00:50But the Australian government privately is growing increasingly concerned about the use
00:56of artificial intelligence in foreign plots to cause political interference to this country.
01:04And this research is being considered a timely reminder of that.
01:09At the same time, we're learning a little bit more about what's occurring in the United
01:13Kingdom, where, again, Facebook-run accounts are helping to sow division in the United
01:21Kingdom over ethnic tensions there.
01:24A recent ABC News Verify investigation linked one of these particularly popular Facebook
01:32sites to a group of internet trolls operating out of Africa.
01:37That was done using a tool that is offered by Facebook's owner, Meta, known as CrowdTangle.
01:44But in the next few days, it's going to be closed down, and Australia's e-safety commissioner,
01:49Julie Inman Grant, is not impressed.
01:52Unfortunately, the replacement tools that Meta is ostensibly putting forward are inferior
01:59to CrowdTangle in terms of really being able to monitor real-time civic discourse.
02:06And the other concern is they're not making this available to journalists.
02:11And we rely on journalists in times of conflict, in times of civil unrest, in times of elections,
02:20to be able to report what's happening in real time, so that we as regulators and citizens
02:25can respond.
02:26Julie Inman Grant speaking there.
02:28And Meta, which operates Facebook and the CrowdTangle tool, has declined to respond
02:34to questions about the decision to shut down the transparency tool.
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