Facebook Removes UAE’s Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior to Support Haftar
Facebook has revealed international networks funded by the United Arab Emirates to support militias of the war criminal Khalifa Haftar in Libya and undermine efforts to resolve the crisis in the country peacefully.
Facebook announced the removal of three separate networks across several platforms linked to Russia and the Internet Research Agency that targeted Libya, Syria and Sudan, funded by the UAE.
The first network consists of 126 pages, 16 groups, 211 profiles, and 17 Instagram accounts of individuals with links to the past activity of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), an entity associated with Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.
According to Facebook, the network included operators in Russia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Syria and targeted individuals in Libya, Sudan and Syria. The operation also had a presence on Twitter of about 30 accounts that actively participate in the information process.
These accounts had several thousand followers – at least one had nearly 12,000 followers, but the presence on Twitter was much less than on Facebook.
The second network mainly targeted the Central African Republic, while the third was linked to the French army and targeted the Central African Republic and Mali. In a joint report on these two processes, it was discovered that each campaign attempted to expose the other.
It was noted that Prigozhin has ties to the Wagner Group, which is a private military mercenary organization that participates in security and combat operations in strategic areas, noting that the UAE funds the group in Libya.
The pages directed to Libya have received the support of the UAE about 5.7 million followers, although some have followed more than one page, and there are indications that the fake post may have been used to increase the number of followers on several pages.
This process included the participation of Syrians and possibly Libyans and Sudanese, who were living in Russia. Support was mobilized through it for Haftar’s militia loyal to the UAE.
Months ago, Facebook announced the closure of several pages, groups and accounts belonging to the Emirates and its allies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia due to its involvement in misleading the public on Facebook and Instagram and targeting them on more than one occasion more than one country in the region.
Facebook said in an official statement that it had found two separate networks, one that originated in the UAE and Egypt and the other in Saudi Arabia, and both of them had created accounts to mislead users.
We removed 259 Facebook accounts, 102 Facebook Pages, five Facebook Groups, four Facebook Events and 17 Instagram accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in the UAE and Egypt and focused on a number of countries, primarily in the Middle East and some in North and East Africa, including Libya, Sudan, Comoros, Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Morocco.
“The people behind this network used fake and dangerous accounts, the vast majority of which were discovered and actually disabled by our automated systems,” she added.
According to the company’s statement, this network has operated the pages, spread their content, commented in groups, and increased participation artificially. It also impersonated local news organizations in the target countries and promoted content about the UAE.
Page moderators and account owners published non-country-specific topics, such as costumes, animals, humour and handicrafts, and also frequently published local and political news, elections, and other topics, including news of alleged support for terrorist groups by Qatar and Turkey, Iran’s activity in Yemen, and the conflict in Libya. And the success of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, and the independence of Somaliland, according to a Facebook statement.
Although the people behind this activity tried to conceal their identity, “Our investigation found links with two marketing companies, New Waves in Egypt and Newave in the UAE,” according to what Facebook said.
The UAE is increasingly resorting to sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to launch covert campaigns for political influence on the Internet.
Facebook has announced campaigns against “fake “behaviour several times a month, but data rarely link such activities directly to a government.
