9/24/21, 7:46 PM Investigation: A network of pro-military Facebook pages in Myanmar with Russian connections | by Aung Kaung Myat | annie lab | Medium The Facebook page in question (left) copied the text from RFA Burmese (right) Inauthentic behaviors Russia is an unusual primary location for page administrators who manage Burmese Facebook pages. It is hard to investigate who is behind these pages and what their motivations are. But there is an established link between the Burmese and Russian militaries, and the identical political content of all six pages offers a skewed narrative in favor of military actions and nationalism. They are often critical of perceived enemies such as the NLD and Myanmar’s Muslim population while sympathetic toward the “suffering” and “self-sacrifices” of soldiers. The pro-military messages target more than 4.4 million users and are presented alongside more sensational stories about celebrities, alternative medicine and sex, usually with clickbait headlines and plagiarized texts. In 2018 Facebook announced it removed hundreds of pages and groups managed by military officials in Myanmar due to their “coordinated, inauthentic behaviors” but these six pages were clearly not part of the takedown. This investigation uncovered a concerted effort among these six Facebook pages to influence online conversations with unsubstantiated claims, hatred toward a religious minority, and jingoistic messages. https://medium.com/annie-lab/investigation-a-network-of-pro-military-facebook-pages-in-myanmar-with-russian-connections-f6c15af3d26a 10/11