We see this operation targeting largely U.S. public debate and engaging in the sort of political issues that are challenging and sometimes divisive in the U.S. right now, whenever you do that, a piece of what you engage on are topics that are going to matter for the election. But I can't say exactly what their goal was.

Nathaniel Gleicher

Categorized in : Politics

If you are very, very loud, if you go viral very, very fast that's exactly the sort of thing that our automated systems will detect and flag, so when actors have really diligent, deliberate and effective operational security it weakens their ability to build an audience.

Nathaniel Gleicher

The people behind this activity used fake accounts... to promote their content, increase engagement, and manage groups and pages, our investigation found that some of this activity was linked to individuals associated with the Myanmar military.

Nathaniel Gleicher

We're constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don't want our services to be used to manipulate people, we are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we've said before, it's an ongoing challenge.

Nathaniel Gleicher

For this operation, our investigators were able to confirm that the individuals behind this are associated with the government of Saudi Arabia, anytime we have a link between an information operation and a government, that's significant and people should be aware.

Nathaniel Gleicher

They would typically post in Arabic about regional news and political issues. They would talk about things like Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - his internal and economic social reform plan, the successes of the Saudi armed forces, particularly during the conflict in Yemen.

Nathaniel Gleicher

We were able to determine conclusively that some of the activities of this network was linked to an individual based in Thailand associated with New Eastern Outlook, a Russian government-funded journal based in Moscow.

Nathaniel Gleicher

We know that these threats are not limited to a specific type of technology or service. The better we can be at working together, the better we'll do by our community.

Nathaniel Gleicher

The individuals behind this activity used fake accounts, while the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review found that it was connected to individuals associated with an INC IT cell.

Nathaniel Gleicher

This activity goes against what people expect on Facebook and it violates our policies, we continue to invest in people and resources to improve the technology we use to detect this type of harmful behavior, and we will continue to take action on an ongoing basis to address it.

Nathaniel Gleicher

They frequently posted about local and political news, including topics like the upcoming elections, candidate updates and views, alleged misconduct of political opponents, and controversial events that were purported to occur during previous administrations.

Nathaniel Gleicher

These accounts and pages were actively working to conceal what they were doing and were linked to the Saracen Group, an online syndicate in Indonesia, they have using deceptive messaging and... networks of concealed pages and accounts to drive often divisive narratives over key issues of public debates in Indonesia.

Nathaniel Gleicher

Public debate, open elections are the cornerstone of democracy, there's nothing more important than this. This is our highest priority and it's certainly my highest priority.

Nathaniel Gleicher

I would say anonymity is an essential component of public debate, as we work on combating bad behaviors and bad actors in this way, we're continually thinking about,' What are the consequences that this could have for advocates ?' and' How do we ensure that we're focused on the harmful actors and that we're not putting barriers in place that prevent advocates from engaging ?'.

Nathaniel Gleicher