In its report, Facebook indicated it had removed two different networks of accounts that had engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour. The first one consisted of “105 Facebook accounts, 24 pages and five Instagram accounts that originated in and targeted Ukraine”. Facebook said the suspicious activity came to their attention through an investigation by Bukvy, an independent news media outlet in Ukraine.
The people running the network combined fake and authentic accounts to share a mix of legitimate news and their own content with their 23,000 followers and also managed what looked like news pages to drive traffic to websites posing as legitimate media sources. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities and the coordinated actions, Facebook’s investigation found links to individuals associated with Sluha Narodu (Servant of the People), the ruling political party in Ukraine on whose ticket President Zelenskyy was elected and whole title mirrors the TV series which propelled him to fame.
Another, significantly larger group of accounts was identified and removed by Facebook on a tip from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations. A total of 477 Facebook accounts, 363 pages, 35 groups (followed by 2.37 million people) and 29 Instagram accounts (with a following of less than 30,000) that originated in and targeted Ukraine were taken down. The accounts also spent close to 0.5 million dollars in advertising on Facebook to promote their posts.
Facebook’s investigation attributed this network to “entities and individuals sanctioned by the US Treasury Department” in January 2021 — namely, politicians Andrii Derkach, Petro Zhuravel, and media companies linked to the sanctioned Begemot Media, as well as political consultants associated with two other political actors: Volodymyr Groysman and Oleg Kulinich.
While Derkach and others were sanctioned for alleged interference in the U.S. elections, their Facebook activity in this case focused solely on Ukrainian audiences and themes and was part of a larger “deceptive influence operation” encompassing different social media platforms and websites.
Source: Facebook removes Ukrainian pro-government and opposition networks for ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ · Global Voices
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