Thread by @benimmo

Focusing on the protests in the US is vital right now, but the work of exposing coordinated inauthentic behaviour in other places keeps going too.

@Facebook announcing takedowns in Iraqi Kurdistan (domestic politics) and Tunisia (commercial) today.

about.fb.com/news/2020/06/m…

At @Graphika_NYC, we looked into the Iraqi case.

"Links to individuals associated with Zanyari Agency, part of the intelligence services of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraqi Kurdistan."

graphika.com/reports/facebo…

The network used fake accounts and ran pages that largely supported the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, with which Zanyari is affiliated, and criticised its rivals.

Here, two pages with the same profile pic, uploaded six minutes apart.

The @DFRLab worked on the Tunisia takedown, classically titled Operation Carthage.

Carthago deleta est.

medium.com/dfrlab/dfrlab-…

"While much of the [Carthage] network engaged on political topics, candidates, and elections, this case is primarily about inauthentic influence operations for profit."

@acarvin underlines a crucial point here.

There are disinfo actors who do it for domestic political influence, and commercial ones who do it as an outsourced service.

There are disinfo actors who do it to profit from clicks, and ideological ones who do it to serve a "higher cause".

It's a note of caution: finding coordinated inauthentic behaviour online takes work.

Attributing it and ascribing a motive takes even more work, and is not always possible.

Don't jump to conclusions (such as "Russians!" or "bots!"). Keep calm, and stick to the evidence.