Facebook takes down network linked to ISPR employees over 'coordinated inauthentic behavior'

[Major]

Facebook Inc announced on Monday that it has taken down 103 "assets" ─ pages, groups and accounts ─ of Pakistani-origin that the company said were linked to employees of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) and involved in "coordinated inauthentic behaviour".

Dawn.com has reached out to ISPR for comment.

The social media giant — which today shared details on "four separate, distinct and unconnected" takedowns linked to both Pakistan and India — said it had removed the pages, accounts and groups set up by the networks "for violating Facebook's policies on coordinated inauthentic behaviour or spam".

Removes 103 pages, groups and accounts on both Facebook and Instagram as part of a network that originated in Pakistan
Removes 687 pages and accounts linked to individuals associated with an IT Cell of the Indian National Congress
Removes 15 Facebook pages, groups and accounts in India that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour and were linked to individuals associated with Indian IT firm, Silver Touch
Removes 321 pages and accounts in India that have broken Facebook rules against spam
"Today we removed 103 pages, groups and accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour on Facebook and Instagram as part of a network that originated in Pakistan," said a statement issued by Nathaniel Gleicher, the company’s head of Cybersecurity Policy, on the investigation.

"Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found that it was linked to employees of the ISPR of the Pakistani military," said the statement.

A sample of the content posted by some of the Pages discovered by the investigation. ─ Photo courtesy Facebook
"The takedown is because there is this network of fake accounts that they are using to conceal their identity and make these pages look independent, when in fact they are not," said Gleicher while talking to Dawn.com. "These pages, groups and accounts represent themselves as independent but in fact, are part of a coordinated operation."

He added that Facebook could not say whether the activity was directed by the organisation or the employees were acting on their own.

"There were multiple employees engaged in this," he said, adding that Facebook is "highly confident" of the identity of the people involved.

Gleicher clarified that Facebook was removing accounts based on their behaviour, not the content they posted.

The investigation found that the network in Pakistan was spread across 24 pages on Facebook and Instagram, 57 Facebook accounts, seven Facebook groups, and 15 Instagram accounts.

"The individuals behind this activity used fake accounts to operate military fan pages; general Pakistani interest pages; Kashmir community pages; and hobby and news pages. They also frequently posted about local and political news including topics like the Indian government, political leaders, and military," the statement said, sharing the following details:

Followers: About 2.8 million accounts followed one or more of these Pages, about 4,700 accounts joined at least one of these groups, and around 1,050 accounts followed one or more of these Instagram accounts.
Advertising: Around $1,100 in spending for ads on Facebook paid for in US dollars and Pakistani rupees. The first ad ran in May 2015 and the most recent ad ran in December 2018.
While talking to Dawn.com, Gleicher did not specify the number of individuals identified as being part of the network, nor did he elaborate on how the links between them and the blocked pages and accounts were established.

A sample of the content posted by some of the Pages discovered by the investigation. ─ Photo courtesy Facebook
"For security purposes we cannot get too specific about how we make these links," he said, because this sort of monitoring is an ongoing activity. "One of the ways we make these links is when we see someone operating one of these fake accounts, and then they log into their own account," he added.

"We do not generally inform the individuals involved but we are in touch with the policy makers [of the countries]," said Gleicher. When asked about which policy makers they had reached out to in Pakistan, he named the Prime Minister's Office and "social media adviser".

https://www.dawn.com/news/1473232/f...ployees-over-coordinated-inauthentic-behavior

 

[Major]

Pathetic stuff but what to expect from these people. Brainwashing is what they have don forever

Would be hilarious if our army whines about freedom of speech )

 

[Stewie]

It was interesting to note how Pakistan hasused cyber media pretty effectively in recent conflicts. They are using modern methods popularized by Russia and DT!

 

[King-Misbah]

It was interesting to note how Pakistan hasused cyber media pretty effectively in recent conflicts. They are using modern methods popularized by Russia and DT!

The army has advanced social media network Instrumental for information warfare.

 

[Adijazz1706]

Pathetic stuff but what to expect from these people. Brainwashing is what they have don forever

Would be hilarious if our army whines about freedom of speech )

Don't expect any change, FB has been involved in propaganda since it's popularity soared

 

[Stewie]

The army has advanced social media network Instrumental for information warfare.

Yeah, seems like we are keeping up with the modern trends. India was definitely trounced in the propaganda side of things during the recent conflict. All those memes on social media man. We made Abhi a cult buffoon icon.. I feel bad for him haha

 

[Stewie]

The army has advanced social media network Instrumental for information warfare.

Pathetic stuff but what to expect from these people. Brainwashing is what they have don forever

Would be hilarious if our army whines about freedom of speech )

You think there is really any such thing as true freedom of speech anywhere?

Try talking against Jews in America or question the war on terror in Iraq ... you will be labeled a terrrorist right away. While at the same time it is perfectly normal to write toxic anti Muslim literature.

 

[MenInG]

Facebook has removed dozens of Pakistani fake accounts and pages involved in suspicious activities including misleading domestic audiences by posing as international news entities through fake social media handles.

“We removed 40 Facebook accounts, 25 Pages, six Groups and 28 Instagram accounts for violating our policy against coordinated inauthentic behaviour,” said the social media giant in its annual report released on Tuesday.

This network originated in Pakistan and primarily targeted domestic audiences, in addition to also focusing on English, Arabic and Pashto-speaking audiences globally, it said.

According to the Facebook report, people behind this activity relied on the use of fake accounts — some of which were already detected and disabled by the automated systems — from posting content, managing pages, and driving people to their off-platform website and other social media channels.

Some of these pages posed as international news entities and frequently shared what appears to be original video content.

“This network appeared to be active across multiple internet services and posted about news and current events in the region, including the ongoing global pandemic; criticism of India and its treatment of Muslims, particularly in the Kashmir region; and also supportive commentary about Pakistan,” read the report.

Facebook in its findings further said some of these pages had been removed in the past over violating company’s community standards including hate speech.

“We found this activity as a result of our internal investigation into the suspected coordinated inauthentic behaviour with some links to the network we removed in April 2019.”

Facebook said its assessment benefited from information shared with it by researchers at Graphika, a company that analyses online information. It said that people involved in the suspicious activity attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, but their investigation found links to individuals associated with AlphaPro, a Pakistan-based PR firm.

According to Graphika, AlphaPro’s website says it has been providing “a broad range of communication solutions” since 2016. Prior to this, the company appears to have operated as an event organiser specialising in weddings.

The Facebook page for a company called “Wedding Mubarak” lists the same office as AlphaPro and shows it previously traded as “Weddings by AlphaPro”.

Graphika found multiple connections between AlphaPro and accounts included in the takedown set, corroborating Facebook’s attribution to “individuals associated” with the company. One of the profiles identified by Facebook, for example, belonged to the firm’s managing director and another seven were the accounts of a person credited as the assistant director on some of the company’s public-facing film projects.

The report further said that the around $40,000 was spent on Facebook and Instagram ads, primarily in US dollars.