Facebook Inc has removed several pages, groups and accounts on its platforms from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Nigeria and Indonesia, citing “coordinated inauthentic behavior”.
The operation in Indonesia involved a network of over 100 fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram posting content in English and Indonesian either in support or criticizing the West Papua independence movement, which is active in the country’s restive easternmost region of Papua.
Further, According to reports, Facebook found evidence some of the accounts had been purchased, with regular changing ownerships, as well as deep links to Egyptian newspaper El Fagr, “which is known for its sensationalistic content.”
Coordinated inauthentic behavior is defined by Facebook as “when groups of pages or people work together to mislead others about who they are or what they’re doing,” as outlined by Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, in a post
Nathaniel Gleicher,said the moves to take down the pages, groups and accounts were based on their behavior and not the content that was posted.
Social media firms such as Facebook and Twitter face increasing scrutiny by governments outside the United States.
Earlier this year, it removed accounts from Iraq, Ukraine, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Thailand, Honduras and Israel.
