The Cyber Policy Center is part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
On November 5, 2020 Facebook announced the takedown of two networks:
25 Pages, 31 profiles, and 2 Instagram accounts affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Facebook, the operation originated in Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco. The network targeted audiences both in Egypt directly and across the Middle East and North Africa.
11 Pages, 6 Groups, 33 profiles, and 47 Instagram accounts that originated in Afghanistan and Iran and targeted Farsi/Dari speakers in Afghanistan.
Facebook suspended these networks not due to the content of their posts, but for coordinated inauthentic behavior: the Facebook Pages and Groups were managed by fake accounts. A summary of the two networks is below, and full reports are linked at the top of this post. Facebook's announcement is here.
Many social media disinformation campaigns—and associated takedowns—have been linked to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt. But we believe this is the first takedown linked to opposing pro-Muslim Brotherhood actors. Interestingly, this network appears markedly similar to networks from anti-Muslim Brotherhood disinformation campaigns on Facebook. Both sides create professional branding for Pages and share polished, original videos. We conjecture that like anti-Muslim Brotherhood operations, this network may be linked to a digital marketing firm in Egypt. These firms have a particular signature.
Key takeaways:
This operation produced content oriented towards women, including promoting women's rights. It also promoted the narrative that Iran is a good ally for Afghanistan, highlighted the brutality of the Taliban, and criticized Pakistani and American intervention in Afghanistan.
Key takeaways:
The network aimed to appeal to women. Fifty-three percent of the Instagram accounts had profile photos of women (compared to 11% with photos of men), and the network shared stories about the educational success of women. It is possible the intent was to undermine the peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban; the Taliban is known for restricting women’s rights.
The network shared messaging that criticized Pakistan, the Taliban, and the U.S. Content about the U.S. criticized U.S. President Donald Trump in general, and specifically claimed that Trump was colluding with the Taliban. The network praised the role Iran could play in Afghan peace negotiations.
Posts from accounts purporting to be in Afghanistan used the term Farsi to describe its language, instead of Dari, often explicitly saying they were proud to use the term Farsi. The two languages are very similar; Iran uses the term Farsi and Afghanistan uses the term Dari.
The Facebook profiles and Instagram accounts were as actively involved in pushing particular narratives as the Pages and Groups, and in many cases had larger followers.
We identified five Telegram channels linked to this Facebook/Instagram operation.
On March 11, 2020 Twitter shared with the Stanford Internet Observatory accounts and