Thread by @jseldin

DEVELOPING: @Facebook takes down 3 separate networks "for violating our policy against foreign or government interference"

"These networks originated in Russia" per post by @ngleicher

"Although the people behind this operation took steps to conceal their identities & coordination, our investigation connected these clusters to the #Russia|n military including military intelligence services" per @Facebook

Per @Facebook, the 3 networks include 214 user, 35 pages, 18 group & 34 @instagram accounts

The focus was "primarily on #Syria and #Ukraine... A small portion of this activity focused on the UK & the US"

Posts were in English, Ukrainian, Russian & Arabic, per @Facebook

Some of the activity involved "fictitious personas...posing as journalists to contact news organizations, purporting to be locals in countries they targeted, and managing Groups and Pages..."

"These clusters also focused on driving people to their off-platform sites & other social media platforms where, among other themes, they promoted content related to past alleged leaks of compromising information" per @Facebook

Despite the fake accounts and fake personas, "The operation had almost no following on our platforms when we removed it" per @Facebook's @ngleicher

Another operation originating in #Russsia, involving one page, 5 FB accounts, 1 group and 3 @instagram accounts, "focused primarily on #Turkey and #Europe, and also on the #UnitedStates" per @Facebook

"The people behind this activity posted off-platform articles primarily in English and Turkish about global news and current events" per @Facebook

Focus included "presidential and parliamentary elections in Hong Kong, Spain, the UK, and the US"

A final cluster of 23 FB accounts, 6 pages & 8 @instagram accounts linked to #Russia "posted primarily in Russian & English abt news & current events, including....socio-economic issues in the US, & US political candidates on both sides of the political spectrum" per @Facebook

More info here: about.fb.com/news/2020/09/r…

Additional analysis on the @Facebook take down of #Russian linked accounts from @DFRLab:

"The network included and amplified the Strategic Culture Foundation, which often highlights Western conspiracy theorists and obscure fringe thinkers"

As @DFRLab notes, @StateDept's Global Engagement Center highlighted the Strategic Culture Foundation in an August 2020 report, saying it is "directed by #Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and closely affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs"

Per @DFRLab, the Strategic Culture Foundation (Фонд стратегической культуры) page was active, "posting an original post every couple of hours"

It also "promoted the idea that the United States is going to face massive public unrest during the presidential election"

Another account, that of “Andrey Fomin" - a founder/editor of Oriental News - "primarily was used to amplify articles by Oriental News and other pro-Kremlin outlets, such as Sputnik News and RT" per @DFRLab, which said its last post was from March 2018

The idea that accounts like that of Andrey Fomin would amplify #Russia|n media, like Sputnik & RT, is in line with warnings from @CISAKrebs

https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1303335722850582528?s=20

In general, the pages removed by @Facebook "included links from other external websites...Among these websites was globalresearch.ca — the Centre for Research on Globalization — a pro-Kremlin & anti-NATO site, & infowars.com" per @DFRLab

"Global Research" was also named in the August 2020 @StateDept Global Engagement Center report on #Russia influence ops...