Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts, pages, and groups from its platform over coordinated inauthentic behavior.
A total of 443 Facebook accounts, 125 Instagram accounts, and 200 pages were removed. They originated from the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Egypt, and Indonesia.
In a post on Thursday, September 4, Facebook revealed that an operation was sharing local news in targeted countries, promoting content about UAE and criticizing Qatar, Turkey, and Iran.
A second operation engaged in domestic-focused coordinated inauthentic behavior in Indonesia with fake accounts spreading support for the independence movement in West Papua province as others posted criticism of it.
The third operation had its origin in Egypt and focused on Somalia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, and Qatar.
The fake accounts posted domestic news and political topics and content in support of UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
The pages which were removed were followed by over 7 million accounts and about 193,000 individuals followed one or more of the Instagram accounts.
