Facebook has removed dozens of accounts for violating external or governmental policy intervention, including many that are linked to the army and police of the Philippines.
Operating under two main networks, originating from China and the Philippines, the individuals behind the activities were coordinated with each other and used fake accounts as an integral part of activities to mislead people about who they were and what they were doing.
For the network originating in China, Facebook removed 155 accounts, 11 pages, nine groups and six Instagram for coordinated inauthentic behavior by foreign or government entities, defined as foreign or government interference. Such activity originated in China and was primarily focused on the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
Additionally, about 133,000 accounts followed at least one of these pages, while 61,000 people participated in at least one of these groups. Another 150 accounts followed at least one of these accounts on Instagram. About $60 was also spent on ads, paid for in Chinese yuan.
“We identified multiple groups that relied on fake accounts to impersonate locals in the countries they targeted. They posted to groups, boosted their own content, managed pages, liked, and commented on other people’s posts, particularly about naval activity in the South China Sea, including U.S. Navy ships ,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, said in a post on Tuesday. “This campaign took security measures to hide its identity and location, including the use of VPNs (virtual private networks).”
Some of the pages had previously been removed due to violations of the site's unapproved behavior and unwanted policies, noted Gleiser.
They had posted in Chinese, Filipino and English about global news and current events, including Beijing’s interests in the South China Sea and Hong Kong. They also focused on content supporting the potential run of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Sara Duterte in the country’s 2022 presidential election, as well as criticism of Rappler, an independent news organization in the Philippines, which notified Facebook about some of the content.
Regarding the US, it was not given much weight with few followers, publishing content both in support and against presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Facebook's investigations found “links” with individuals from China's Fujian province.
According to Gleicher, among those removed, the network was behind 57 Facebook accounts, 31 pages, and 20 Instagram accounts and focused efforts on domestic audiences. Specifically, this network was found to have links to the military and police in the Philippines.
276,000 accounts followed at least one of these pages, while 5,500 people had followed at least one of the accounts on Instagram. Approximately $1,100 was spent on Facebook ads and paid in Philippine pesos.
The Philippine network included several groups that relied on fake accounts to post content, comment and manage pages, he said, adding that this operation appeared to have accelerated between 2019 and 2020. The network posted in Filipino and English about local news and events, such as domestic politics, military counterterrorism activities, various anti-terrorism bills, criticisms of communism, as well as the Communist Party of the Philippines.
