  Why do Social Media Corporations (SMCs) engage in state-linked information
operations? Social media can significantly influence the global political
landscape, allowing governments and other political entities to engage in
concerted information operations, shaping or manipulating domestic and foreign
political agendas. In response to state-linked political manipulation tactics
on social media, Twitter and Meta carried out take-down operations against
propaganda networks, accusing them of interfering foreign elections, organizing
disinformation campaigns, manipulating political debates and many other issues.
This research investigates the two SMCs' policy orientation to explain which
factors can affect these two companies' reaction against state-linked
information operations. We find that good governance indicators such as
democracy are significant elements of SMCs' country-focus. This article also
examines whether Meta and Twitter's attention to political regime
characteristics is influenced by international political alignments. This
research illuminates recent trends in SMCs' take-down operations and
illuminating interplay between geopolitics and domestic regime characteristics.
