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We removed 78 Facebook accounts, 45 Pages, 93 Groups and 46 Instagram
accounts engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior. This activity originated
primarily in Nigeria and focused on domestic audiences.
The people behind this activity used fake and duplicate accounts to manage Groups and
Pages posing as independent news entities, and to drive people to their off-platform sites.
Many of these accounts used stock images and photos of Ibrahim Zakzaky, the head of
Nigeria's Islamic Movement (IMN), Ayatollah Khomeini and Qasem Soleimani. This network
amplified particular hashtags including #FreeZakzaky after the arrest of IMN's founder. The
Page admins and account owners posted primarily in Hausa, and also in English and Arabic
about local news and events including IMN being a peaceful movement, protests across
Nigeria, and criticism of the Nigerian armed forces, police, President Buhari and the ban of
IMN.
We identified this activity through our investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic
behavior in the region with some limited links to the network we removed in March 2019.
Although the people behind this operation attempted to conceal their identities and
coordination, our investigation linked this activity to the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.
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Presence on Facebook and Instagram: 78 Facebook accounts, 45 Pages, 93 Groups
and 46 Instagram accounts.
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Followers: A
round 82,000 accounts followed one or more of these Pages, about 130,000
accounts joined at least one of these Groups, and around 25,000 people followed one or
more of these Instagram accounts.
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Advertising: Less than $50 spent on Facebook and Instagram ads paid for primarily in
US dollars.
Below is a sample of the content posted by some of these Pages.
OCTOBER 2020 COORDINATED INAUTHENTIC BEHAVIOR REPORT