Facebook Deletes Accounts From Nigeria, UAE, Others

The tech giant said it removed a total of 443 Facebook and 125 Instagram accounts, as well as 200 pages and 76 groups originating in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Nigeria, and Indonesia.

 

Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts, pages, and groups from its
social network platforms that the company says were involved in
coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

The tech giant said it removed a total of 443 Facebook and 125
Instagram accounts, as well as 200 pages and 76 groups originating in
the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Nigeria, and Indonesia.

In a blog post on Thursday, Facebook said one of the operations was
sharing local news in targeted countries and promoting content about
UAE as well as criticism of Qatar, Turkey, and Iran.

A smaller operation was involved in “domestic-focused coordinated
inauthentic behaviour in Indonesia,” with fake accounts sharing
content in support of the independence movement in West Papua
province, while others posted criticism of it, News Agency of Nigeria.

A third operation, originating in Egypt, focused on Somalia, Yemen,
Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Tunisia, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, and Qatar,
the social media company said.

Facebook said of the fake accounts, “(They) typically posted about
domestic news and political topics including content in support of the
United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

"The fake account also made criticism of  Qatar, Iran, and Turkey; and
Yemen’s southern separatist movement.”

Over seven million accounts followed one or more of the pages and some
3,000 accounts joined at least one of the groups.

Around 193,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts