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BREAKING: @Facebook just took down four networks for coordinated inauthentic behavior. Attributions include:

- "some of the employees of the offices of (...) Eduardo Bolsonaro, Flavio Bolsonaro and Jair Bolsonaro";

- "Roger Stone and his associates."

about.fb.com/news/2020/07/r…
Other attributions:

- "Postmen DA, an advertising agency in Ukraine";

- "political consultants and former government employees in Ecuador and Estraterra, a Canada-based PR firm".

PR companies have featured in a fair few takedowns recently.
Different countries, languages and contexts, but a common denominator of coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

Some ideas do get around, don't they?
Also worth noting that most of this activity was aimed at domestic audiences. Disinfo starts at home, guys.

On the U.S. front, here's the Graphika report on the Stone takedown.

graphika.com/reports/facebo…
On the Ukrainian PR agency, which was mostly posting about domestic politics, especially last year's elections, there's this.

graphika.com/reports/postme…
On the Brazilian takedown - full attribution "individuals associated with the Social Liberal Party and some of the employees of the offices of Anderson Moraes, Alana Passos, Eduardo Bolsonaro, Flavio Bolsonaro and Jair Bolsonaro" - here's @DFRLab.

medium.com/dfrlab/faceboo…
And again h/t the @DFRLab team, here's an analysis of the Estraterra takedown, "an Ecuadorian public relations firm operated out of Canada."

medium.com/dfrlab/faceboo…
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Ben Nimmo
@benimmo
Catching up on this, but important @Ofcom finding against Chinese state broadcaster CGTN (quondam CCTV) on privacy violations.

Sanction being considered, for the second time in the last couple of months.

ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/…
Here's the earlier one, from May. Violations of the rules on due impartiality over its coverage of the Hong Kong protests.

ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/…
CGTN has had a long spell without violations. The preceding one was for coverage in 2014, when it was found to have violated the due-impartiality rules over... the Hong Kong protests.

ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/…
Read 4 tweets
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Ben Nimmo
@benimmo
BREAKING: @Graphika_NYC has been digging into Russian info op #SecondaryInfektion for months. Today, we’re exposing its full scale.

6 years
7 languages
> 2,500 pieces of content
> 300 platforms (no, that’s not a typo)
And some truly epic fails.

secondaryinfektion.org
Top takeaways: 1) Secondary Infektion is a full-scale disinfo operation that’s been around at least six years.

We don’t know which entity is behind it, but they’re persistent, high-opsec, and a tough investigative nut to crack.
This is a conservative estimate based on many interlocking criteria, including:
Short-lived, single-use burner accounts;
Forged documents;
Specific combinations of sites and fora;
Finds published by platforms (eg @Reddit).

We’re sure there's more to find.
Read 33 tweets
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Ben Nimmo
@benimmo
I've been getting questions on the Kurdistan takedown, and am happy to help clarify the context.

First, as some pointed out already and as our report makes clear, the investigation of this network was initiated and conducted by Facebook, based on an earlier investigation.
Facebook then shared information about this network with Graphika for an independent analysis. We detailed the behaviour, content and tactics used by this operation.

Facebook attributed the activity to “individuals associated with” the Zanyari Agency: about.fb.com/news/2020/06/m…
People are also asking what the reason for the takedown was.

Takedowns like this are based on behaviour, rather than content: it’s the use of coordinated fake accounts that is key.

More about the Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour policy here: about.fb.com/news/2018/12/i…
Read 5 tweets

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