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We removed 46 Pages, 91 Facebook accounts, 2 Groups, and 1 Instagram
account for violating our policy against foreign interference which is coordinated
inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign entity. This activity originated in
Russia, the Donbass region in Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula. The people
behind it posted in Russian, English, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian,
Serbian, Georgian, Indonesian and Farsi, focusing on a wide range of regions
around the world.
The individuals behind this activity relied on a combination of authentic, duplicate and
fake accounts — many of which had been previously detected and disabled by our
automated systems. They used fake accounts to post their content and manage
Groups and Pages posing as independent news entities in the regions they targeted.
This network posted about geopolitical and local news including topics such as the
military conflict in Ukraine, the Syrian civil war, the annexation of Crimea, NATO, US
elections, and more recently the coronavirus pandemic. Our investigation linked this
activity to individuals in Russia and Donbass, 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.
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Presence on Facebook and Instagram: 46 Pages, 91 accounts, 2 Groups, and 1
Instagram account
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Followers: A
bout 267,300 accounts followed one or more of these Pages, about 2,100
accounts joined one or more of these Groups, and around 800 people followed this
Instagram account
APRIL 2020 COORDINATED INAUTHENTIC BEHAVIOR REPORT