Fake Instagram profiles silence critical voices in Serbia

New profiles on Instagram, with no followers and few posts.

This is what almost all profiles on this social network looked like, which were followed in a coordinated manner, within a short period, by critical media and non-governmental organizations in Serbia.

After that, the latter's accounts on this platform were temporarily suspended.

An analysis by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty shows that these are fake followers. Journalists' associations and civil society organizations suspect that this is a deliberate move to limit the reach of media outlets that are not controlled by the authorities.

On January 18, the Instagram accounts of more than twenty media outlets, organizations, and individuals in Serbia were suspended or closed, following a sudden increase in followers within a short period.

The Meta company, owner of Instagram and Facebook, interprets this as suspicious activity – which leads to the suspension or eventual closure of accounts.

"This is an unprecedented case, because, at the same time, many accounts of different actors were affected - from media outlets and photojournalists to civil society organizations and activists," Bojan Perkov from the Share Foundation in Serbia, which deals with digital security, tells Radio Free Europe.

According to him, it is problematic that Meta moderates content mechanically and often reacts to accounts that do not violate the rules - which is what happened in this case.

Most of the profiles that were closed or suspended on January 18 were reactivated a day later.

Radio Free Europe asked the High-Tech Crimes Prosecutor's Office in Serbia whether it is investigating the closure of media and civil society organization accounts on social networks, but, by the time of publication of this article, it had not received a response.

Meta confirmed to REL that its teams have reinstated the accounts that were incorrectly suspended. They also said they are working to identify measures that will prevent similar incidents in the future.

Attacks with "bot" profiles that lasted for months

Shortly before Instagram accounts were closed in a synchronized manner, several media outlets publicly warned about attacks with "bot" profiles, which are created by computers to perform various activities on social networks, such as automatic distribution of posts or artificial increase in followers.

Among them was the portal "Nova S", which on January 10 reported an unusual increase in followers on its Instagram account.

According to data from the platform for analyzing public profiles on social networks, Social Blade, in just one day, the profile of this portal was followed by over 40 thousand new users - without any viral posts or increased activity.

And, just one day later, the account lost 25 followers from Instagram.

Serbian weekly "Radar" announced on January 13 that its account's number of followers increased by about 8 percent in less than two hours. At the same time, the accounts of the television stations "Nova S" and "N1", as well as the youth portal "Zoomer", also saw a sudden increase in followers.

This portal identified several accounts that also followed several media profiles in Serbia.

According to REL's analysis, these profiles show a clear structure of fake accounts (bots): they have no followers, were recently opened, and all posts were made on the first day - there was no further activity afterwards.

The profiles of student organizations also registered a large number of new followers, especially those that in late 2024 initiated blockades in faculties, and then mass protests against the Government in Serbia.

In the last few months, the Instagram profile "Students in the Blockade" has almost tripled the number of followers - from almost 400 thousand to one million.

In November 2025, some student profiles were temporarily closed for this reason.

Students, since the beginning of the protests, have been using social media as their main channels of communication.

"Non-transparent rules"

Although most media profiles on Instagram witnessed an immediate increase in followers, this was not the case with all accounts that were closed or suspended.

Data from the analytics platform, Social Blade, shows that the CRTA organization's profile had no unusual activity or increase in followers.

Jovana Djurbabic from this non-governmental organization, which monitors elections and studies democracy and the rule of law, confirms for REL:

"No immediate increase in followers happened to us. We did not receive any notification for violating the community rules either. On the morning of January 18, the colleague who deals with social networks tried to access the profile and it no longer existed."

According to her, the profile was closed without any explanation on January 18 and restored a day later – again without any explanation from the Meta company.

"It's quite strange and symptomatic of what happened with different accounts on the same day. Even if our profile was automatically closed, there must have been an initial step for Meta to impose the block," says Gjurbabic.

According to her, CRTA wrote to Meta's Support Service, but has not received any response so far.

Perkov, from the Share Foundation, believes that Meta applies non-transparent rules – which often makes it unclear how a decision was made about content and what its consequences may be.

“This is particularly problematic for accounts from Serbia – which is not a member of the EU – where the rules of the Digital Services Act, which require online platforms to provide transparency and appeal procedures for moderation decisions, are not applied,” says Perkov.

Reactions of journalists' organizations

Several media organizations condemned the closure of the profiles of "Radar", the "Nova" portal and other media outlets, demanding that the authorities immediately reveal who is behind these "world attacks".

The Association for Electronic Media (ANEM) described this as “a coordinated action, aimed at blocking the profiles of independent and professional media.”

According to this association, of particular concern is the way Meta acted, as all profiles had a status indicating that they did not violate the platform's rules.

"Editorial offices and administrators did not receive prior warning about the closure of profiles, even though, according to the platform's rules, this should be standard practice - explaining the rules that were allegedly violated and giving a deadline for correction," ANEM said.

The Society of Independent Journalists of Vojvodina said that these events are not isolated technological incidents, but coordinated attempts of "digital sabotage", targeting independent media outlets that report critically on public issues and events of general interest.

REL also requested comment from the European Commission, but, by the time of publication of this article, had not received a response.

In 2025, Serbia had the highest number of attacks on journalists compared to other Western Balkan countries, according to the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism and the Safety of Journalists.

Data shows that, last year, 59 cases of threats to the safety of journalists were recorded in the Western Balkans, of which 33 were from Serbia.

In a report by the international organization, Freedom House, from February 2025, Serbia was ranked among the countries with the greatest decline in media freedom over the last ten years.

One of the reasons cited was increased control over the media and attacks on journalists, although authorities deny the pressure.