1/ Today we’re announcing 5 networks removed for Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior in February: 2 networks from Iran targeting multiple countries, and domestic networks in Thailand, Morocco, and Russia about.fb.com/news/2021/03/f…
2/ The two Iranian networks focused on the middle east, as well as the UK and Afghanistan. They engaged on a range of topics, using tactics we’ve seen from other operations, and had limited reach — one operation had less than 15K followers for their assets, the other under 500.
3/ The Thai operation exhibited links to the Thai Military’s Internal Security Operations Command. It used fake accounts posing as individuals from the southern provinces of Thailand to criticize separatist movements and support the monarchy and military.
4/ The Russian operation used a network of bulk-created fake accounts to attempt to “poison” hashtags and geotags used by pro-Navalny protestors. The fake accounts were created as recently as January 2021, and were detected and disabled by our automation.
5/ The Russian operation is interesting b/c of its focus on pro-Navalny protests, and because of its use of bulk-created fake accounts (a tactic we see most commonly from financially-motivated fraudsters).
6/ But it wasn’t very effective. Their accounts were detected by our systems and blocked as they increased their activity, so while there were ~500 fake accounts associated w/the op, only a limited number were active at any time, and they were stopped before they could do much.
7/ It’s a good reminder that automated systems & expert investigative teams work best together. We’ll keep investing in both these efforts to tackle online deception, and making sure they continue to complement each other.
Coverage of the Russian operation we removed via Bloomberg: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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