9/24/21, 8:06 PM Radio Free Myanmar: Disinformation network spreads false news and hate speech | Frontier Myanmar The number of RFM posts surged in August and September, as Myanmar’s election draws nearer. (Frontier) To combat disinformation related to the November 8 election, Facebook has introduced a range of measures, including AI to proactively detect hate speech before it becomes widely spread, partnerships with third-party fact checkers, and increased political ad transparency. Those behind RFM, who appear to be supporters of the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party, have employed methods that appear to be aimed at avoiding detection and removal from Facebook, where much of its content is shared. For example, there is no RFM Facebook page; individual pages and users post content purporting to be from RFM. Disinformation posts attributed to RFM usually originate as photograph templates that look like screenshots of news articles (often no such articles exist). These templates seem to be created off Facebook before being shared as original posts on Facebook. Less frequently, disinformation posts originate on a WordPress blog and are then shared to Facebook. By doing this, it makes it harder to simply search a link and find every time it’s been publicly shared, and multiple different accounts are sharing content, rather than it being concentrated in one group. The profile of “Maung Maung”, where much of the recent RFM content seems to have originated. (Frontier) Inside the RFM network https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/radio-free-myanmar-disinformation-network-spreads-false-news-and-hate-speech/ 2/9