Facebook has disabled a large network of fake accounts that it says were involved in an extensive disinformation operation tied to the government of Saudi Arabia.
The
social media company said on Thursday that the operation concentrated on
spreading state-approved propaganda that extolled the Saudi royal family and
its policies in the Middle East. The operation employed over 350 fake accounts,
which collectively had nearly 1.5 million followers. It is believed that the
Saudi propaganda scheme was also active on Instagram, the popular image- and
video-sharing service, which is owned by Facebook.
According
to Facebook’s Office of Cybersecurity Policy, the Saudi disinformation
operation used an interconnected network of fake accounts that were made
to look like they represented local news outlets in a number of Middle
Eastern countries. The accounts circulated carefully written news
reports that presented Saudi officials and the Kingdom in a positive
light. Major themes in posts included the philanthropic work of Saudi
Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and the economic and social
policies he has instituted since his ascent to power. Other posts
expressed support for Saudi’s involvement in Yemen, where the Saudi
government is leading an anti-Shiite military campaign. Several posts
criticized Qatar, which Saudi Arabia accuses of sponsoring terrorism,
and Iran, which is Riyadh’s most formidable regional rival. For several
months last year, the fake news network circulated posts that expressed
strong skepticism about claims that the Saudi government ordered the
murder of one of its leading critics, Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul,
Turkey.
Although Facebook, regularly deletes fake
accounts for what it calls “inauthentic behavior”, it almost never
issues statements tying groups of accounts to specific governments.
However, according to Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of Facebook’s
Cybersecurity Policy Office, “investigators were able to confirm that
the individuals behind this are associated with the government of Saudi
Arabia”. Gleicher added that the disinformation campaign spent over
$100,000 promoting its posts online. Most were in the Arabic language
and targeted countries in the Middle East and North Africa, he said. The
social media giant’s announcement came 48 hours after a report in The Washington Post
quoted several cyber security experts who said many government’s other
than Russia’s use social media to spread disinformation, including those
of Israel, China and Saudi Arabia.
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