TheInstagramactivitywascrudeandspammy,andorganizedaroundahandfulofhashtags.Two
ofthemwereinEnglish:#AstraZenecakillsand#AstraZenecalies,inadditiontotheirequivalents
inPortuguese:#AstraZenecamataand#AstraZenecamente.Thelastonewas
#stopAstraZeneca.Theoperationlikelyoriginatedthesehashtags:neither#astrazenecakills,
#stopastrazenecanor#astrazenecaliesappearedtohavebeenusedonInstagrambefore.
BetweenDecember14andDecember21,about10,000poststhatincludedtheoperation's
hashtagsweremade,oftenwithlinkstotheoperation'soff-platformarticles.
Mostoftheaccountspostedthesehashtagsdozensorhundredsoftimesinquicksuccession,
likelyautomated,withsomedetectedanddisabledbyourautomatedsystems.Whilethe
volumewashigh,thecampaignsawminimalsuccess.Ononeofthehashtagsusedbythe
operation,thetop-performingpostreceivedfivelikes,whereasthevastmajoritygotzero.
Altogether,theoperation’sInstagrampostsattractedaround1,000likescombined,withmost
receivingzero.
Inanothersign���ofthesloppynatureofthiscampaign,mostofthepoststhatused
Portuguese-languagehashtagsbetweenDecember14andDecember16attachedthemto
Hindi-languagememes.FromDecember17onwards,theyaccompaniedthehashtagswiththe
samememes,buttranslatedintoSpanish.(“AstraZenecamata”,“AstraZenecakills”, isthesame
inSpanishandPortuguese,whereas“AstraZenecalies”is“AstraZenecamente”inPortuguese,
but“AstraZenecamiente”inSpanish.)Perhapsnotsurprisingly,thisspammyamplificationalso
failedtoattractattention.
Image
MemepostedbyoneoftheInstagramaccounts
onDecember15,2020.ThememewasinHindi,
buttheaccounthadanEnglishname.Itwas
operatedfromRussia,anditusedaPortuguese
hashtag.
JULY2021COORDINATEDINAUTHENTICBEHAVIORREPORT
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