9/24/21, 7:33 PM Facebook shut down commercial disinformation network based in Myanmar and Vietnam | by @DFRLab | DFRLab | Medium Facebook shut down commercial disinformation network based in Myanmar and Vietnam Inauthentic pages linked to telecom provider MyTel ran campaigns aimed at discrediting the company’s competitors @DFRLab Follow Feb 12, 2020 · 9 min read (Source: @jean_leroux/DFRLab) On February 12, 2020, as a part of a larger takedown, Facebook removed 13 accounts and 10 pages linked to MyTel, a Burmese telecommunications company indirectly owned by the Myanmar and Vietnamese militaries, for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Of the 23 total assets within the Burmese set, the DFRLab had access to six of the pages prior to the takedown. These six presented themselves as neutral special interest pages focused on mobile technology but targeted the commercial opponents of MyTel and its sister company, MyTelPay, as well MyTel competitors’ users. This operation differed in one respect from previous commercial operations the DFRLab has encountered, such as the May 2019 takedown of assets related to the Israeli political marketing firm Archimedes Group and the December 2019 takedown of https://medium.com/dfrlab/facebook-shut-down-commercial-disinformation-network-based-in-myanmar-and-vietnam-d8c07c518c04 1/15