“Meta” on SNS fake account closure: Targeting domestic audience to create perception of broad support for Vučić

Meta said it had dismantled three state-linked “domestic influence operations” on Facebook in the last quarter, each using networks of fake accounts to influence domestic politics and target opposition parties.

Meta company investigators found that the operations, linked to ruling parties and governments in Cuba, Serbia and Bolivia, were involved in a series of “coordinated inauthentic behaviours” (CIB). Each group operated through a number of social media platforms, including Meta platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, reports specialist portal Jurist.

In Cuba, fake accounts with AI-generated profile pictures ran Facebook pages and groups and posted content on various platforms, including information about opposition figures and critics, whom they called “worms”, a derogatory term used by the government to refer to dissidents.

A similar network in Serbia, linked to Serbian Progressive Party staff, known as the party’s Internet team, also used fake accounts and coordinated posts.

They targeted domestic audiences on a number of internet services, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, as well as local media, to “create the perception of broad and authentic support for Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Progressive Party”, according to a statement from company Meta.

In Bolivia, activities linked to the current government and the MASD party have formed a “mixed operation” of coordinated inauthentic behaviour and mass reporting, with networks of accounts abusing the platform’s moderation tools to flag, remove and suppress opposition figures. One of these Facebook pages had two million followers when it was shut down.

Meta’s growing efforts to try to moderate and restrict content that violates human rights come at a time of intense criticism the company has faced in recent years for its inability and unwillingness to control similar networks, says Jurist./nova.rs/