the COVID-19 pandemic began, however, we’ve seen people behind these campaigns
opportunistically use coronavirus-related posts among many other topics to build an audience
and drive people to their Pages or off-platform sites. The majority of the networks we took
down this month were still trying to grow their audience or had a large portion of engagement
on their Pages generated by their own accounts.
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Total number of Facebook accounts removed: 732
Total number of Instagram accounts removed: 162
Total number of Pages removed: 793
Total number of Groups removed: 200
NETWORKS REMOVED IN APRIL, 2020:
1. Russia: We removed 46 Pages, 91 Facebook accounts, 2 Groups, and 1 Instagram
account. This network posted in Russian, English, German, Spanish, French,
Hungarian, Serbian, Georgian, Indonesian and Farsi, focusing on a wide range of
regions around the world. Our investigation linked this activity to individuals in Russia,
the Donbass region in Ukraine and two media organizations in Crimea — NewsFront
and SouthFront. We found this network as part of our internal investigation into
suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior in the region.
2. Iran: We removed 118 Pages, 389 Facebook accounts, 27 Groups, and 6 Instagram
accounts. This activity originated in Iran and focused on a wide range of countries
globally including Algeria, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Mauritania,
Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, the US,
UK and Zimbabwe. Our investigation linked this activity to the Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting Corporation. We found this network as part of our internal investigations
into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior, based in part on some links to our
past takedowns.
3. US: We removed 5 Pages, 20 Facebook accounts, and 6 Groups that originated in the
US and focused domestically. Our investigation linked this activity to individuals
associated with the QAnon network known to spread fringe conspiracy theories. We
found this activity as part of our internal investigations into suspected coordinated
inauthentic behavior ahead of the 2020 election in the US.
APRIL 2020 COORDINATED INAUTHENTIC BEHAVIOR REPORT