Taking Down More Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior in Myanmar
By Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy
Today, we removed multiple accounts and Pages for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior in Myanmar on Facebook and Instagram.
We’re constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people. We’re removing these Pages, Groups and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they posted. Over the past year, we’ve taken down three other networks in Myanmar for engaging in this sort of behavior.
We are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we’ve said before, it’s an ongoing challenge. We’re committed to continually improving to stay ahead. That means building better technology, hiring more people and working more closely with security experts and other companies.
What We’ve Found So Far
Today, we removed 89 Facebook accounts, 107 Facebook Pages, 15 Facebook Groups, and five Instagram accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Myanmar. The people behind this activity used fake accounts — some of which had already been disabled by our automated systems — to promote their content, increase engagement, and manage Groups and Pages. They frequently repurposed legitimate news and entertainment content and posted about national and local topics, including crime, ethnic relations, celebrities, and the military. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found that some of this activity was linked to individuals associated with the Myanmar military.
Presence on Facebook and Instagram: 89 Facebook accounts, 107 Pages, 15 Groups, and 5 accounts on Instagram.
Followers: About 900,000 accounts followed one or more of these Pages, about 67,000 accounts joined at least one of these Groups, and around 400 people followed one or more of these Instagram accounts.
Advertising: Less than $1,200 spent on Facebook and Instagram ads paid for in US dollars and Russian rubles.
We identified these accounts through our internal investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior in the region.
Below is a sample of the content posted by some of these Pages.
Our security team’s ongoing investigations are just one part of the work we’re doing to help keep our community in Myanmar safe. We also continue to work on tackling hate speech and misinformation, building better tools and technology, deepening our partnerships and programs, and preparing for the 2020 General Election.
We’re sharing trends we saw on our platforms during this year’s global elections and explaining our efforts to balance self expression and safety.
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