April 2020] THE "WEAPONIZATION" OF FACEBOOK 819 disinformation techniques used to interfere with foreign elections.33 Rappler, a civil society organization based in the Philippines, compared Russia’s online disinformation tactics, as outlined in the Indictment, with President Duterte’s use of Facebook while President of the Philippines.34 Building off Rappler’s comparison, the following Subparts categorize the key tactics used by autocrats in “weaponizing” Facebook to control their respective citizens. A. FICTITIOUS ONLINE PERSONAS/“TROLLING” State actors post on social media platforms under fictitious personas to spread defamatory information through a method known as “trolling.”35 According to the Indictment, Russia conducted “‘information warfare against the United States of America through fictitious U.S. personas on social media platforms and other Internet-based media.”36 In the Philippines, numerous fake accounts proliferated on Facebook as candidates geared up to campaign in 2015.37 In Myanmar, the military set up troll accounts and celebrity pages, only to later flood these pages “with incendiary comments and posts timed for peak viewership.”38 While popular news pages outwardly devoted content to Burmese pop stars, models and other celebrities, in reality, the military controlled these pages and used them to distribute “lurid photos, false news, and inflammatory posts.”39 B. PROPAGANDA PAGES Autocrats also spread propaganda explicitly on social media platforms.40 As stated in the Indictment, the IRA operated social media pages that addressed a number of issues pertinent to voters in the United States, including “immigration . . . the Black Lives Matter movement . . . [and] religion.”41 The IRA utilized a wide range of social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to spread their propaganda.42 33. Id. 34. Natashya Gutierrez, Is the Philippines in Step with Russian Online Propaganda Warfare?, RAPPLER (Mar. 10, 2018), https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/197558-philippines-russia-online-propagandawarfare-techniques. 35. Emily Birnbaum, Mueller Identified “Dozens” of U.S. Rallies Organized by Russian Troll Farm, HILL (Apr. 18, 2019, 12:21 PM), https://thehill.com/policy/technology/439532-mueller-identified-dozens-of-usrallies-organized-by-russian-troll-farm. 36. Indictment, supra note 32, at 6. 37. See Gutierrez, supra note 34. 38. Paul Mozur, A Genocide Incited on Facebook, with Posts from Myanmar’s Military, N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 15, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html. 39. Id. 40. Indictment, supra note 32, at 14. 41. Id. 42. Id. at 6.