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In order to run a disinformation campaign across social media, Russia uses real people (likely in America) to accomplish this. From day one, I’ve always said Russia has a US-based network of agents — I know, I was one. https://t.co/xmVb4HIWUT
— Naveed Jamali (@NaveedAJamali) October 30, 2019
? New Research on Russian Activity in Africa ?
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) October 30, 2019
Shelby lead a team of Stanford Internet Observatory analysts looking for organized disinformation in Africa and found a campaign we attribute to the Russian paramilitary, the Wagner Group. Read the thread for much more... https://t.co/OMlcgT5Y5n
Prigozhin led the same team behind the 2016 U.S. election interference campaign https://t.co/GE4XT1fdwy
— Anthony DeRosa? (@Anthony) October 30, 2019
NEWS: Facebook removed three Russia-backed influence networks aimed at African countries. FB says the networks were linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin & Stanford Internet Observatory is attributing (w/ moderate conference) one of the networks to the Wagner Group. https://t.co/0EwFRESctv
— Davey Alba (@daveyalba) October 30, 2019
Russia’s disinformation efforts are evolving, an enormous new Facebook campaign in Africa shows, with implications for the 2020 U.S. election https://t.co/82EBNL6hUE
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 30, 2019
Most know Prigozhin as the man behind the Internet Research Agency, which ran numerous influence operations over the past ~6 yrs, notably in the U.S. (incl during Election 2016) and in the Ukraine. He was indicted by the DOJ for the U.S. activity. https://t.co/UcucWSD738
— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) October 30, 2019
We have released a whitepaper detailing the specifics of the operation across 6 countries, which can be found here: https://t.co/SkLHirnoCn and Facebook's post is here https://t.co/dwNFp3HIgI
— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) October 30, 2019
While Russia fine tunes its disinformation tactics ahead of the 2020 elections, @senatemajldr continues to block urgent election security bills. This gridlock is a threat to our democracy and a gift to Vladimir Putin. https://t.co/qv8ktok53X
— Michael Bennet (@MichaelBennet) October 30, 2019
The Pages suggest that IO activities are being run out of multiple orgs…also, by local contractors. This makes them harder to detect. These Pages, many of which masqueraded as local news, produced almost universally positive coverage of Russia’s activities in the countries. pic.twitter.com/zhylqkK8N3
— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) October 30, 2019
Libya: This operation - the one operation we attribute to Wagner Group - supported 2 potential future political competitors. It had Egyptian Page managers. The most interesting Pages included Gaddafi nostalgia content, like this Page. These Pages bolstered Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. pic.twitter.com/E78dOOP8ZQ
— Shelby Grossman (@shelbygrossman) October 30, 2019
The scale, scope, and methods of the operations are important to understand independently of anything related to U.S. 2020; hundreds of thousands to millions of people followed the pages (~1.7MM Likes on what SIO saw), and it was more a persuasion program than 'societal division'
— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) October 30, 2019
More broadly, however, the franchising of disinformation operations to local operators who may not even know who's paying them, and who may look quite legitimate and have the appropriate home country name in the transparency field is a significant challenge to detection...
— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) October 30, 2019
Today we removed three networks of accounts, pages and groups for engaging in foreign interference on Facebook and Instagram. They originated in Russia and targeted eight countries across Africa. More details below.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) October 30, 2019
https://t.co/HTYKiBZWpS
Worth observing that Prigozhin & IRA are wholly undeterred by U.S. actions that have included:
— Olivia Gazis (@Olivia_Gazis) October 30, 2019
1)Indictment by DOJ/Special Counsel
2)Treasury sanctions for both 2016 & 2018
3)Being taken offline by NSA/Cybercom in 2018
Says much about efforts to change Russia's behavior. https://t.co/PrNx2qk2ZZ
Today the SIO team and Facebook are reporting a takedown of an influence operation; our analysis involved 73 pages that spanned 6 countries in Africa linked to a range of entities connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin, including the Wagner Group. Our post: https://t.co/GPLuWOi9eJ
— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) October 30, 2019
Today Facebook removed dozens of Facebook Pages that my Stanford Internet Observatory team has spent the past few weeks analyzing. The Pages are attributed to entities linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, and targeted 6 African countries. https://t.co/0XCDO6WWj8
— Shelby Grossman (@shelbygrossman) October 30, 2019
To its credit, Facebook has gotten much better at shutting down foreign disinformation campaigns since 2016. Sure hope this team is empowered to stop domestic manipulation, too! https://t.co/LdYaGWOheb
— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) October 30, 2019
Facebook removes wide-ranging Russian disinformation campaign targeting Africa https://t.co/kfPxkHF0ZW
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) October 30, 2019
Facebook has removed three networks of accounts and groups backed by Russia and linked with political interference in eight African countries. https://t.co/UDj2lMFzH9
— Axios (@axios) October 30, 2019
? Facebook has removed three networks of accounts and groups backed by Russia and linked with political interference in eight African countries.?https://t.co/QJP1XZDgRZ
— Alex (@aroseblush) October 30, 2019
Today the SIO team and Facebook are reporting a takedown of an influence operation; our analysis involved 73 pages that spanned 6 countries in Africa linked to a range of entities connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin, including the Wagner Group. Our post: https://t.co/GPLuWOi9eJ
— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) October 30, 2019
Facebook suspends propaganda accounts in multiple African countries linked to the U.S.-sanctioned Putin loyalist behind the IRA "troll factory," exposing an alarming local "franchise model" that could be used around the world. My story with @jc_stubbs: https://t.co/uLTGIHjc4W
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) October 30, 2019
#fuckery thy name is Yevgeny Prigozhin
— Robert Young Pelton (@RYP__) October 30, 2019
"The campaigns used almost 200 fake and compromised accounts to target people in Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya" https://t.co/EilVFtAwXP
This has not been a good week for Prigozhin. @jc_stubbs on the latest takedown of Prigozhin-related assets, this time in Africa (h/t @alexstamos) https://t.co/3CoEfNJTME
— Ben Nimmo (@benimmo) October 30, 2019
This is great news. Without the work of journalists from @dossier_center, Proekt and Novaya Gazeta among others, the world wouldn't even know about Yevgeny #Prigozhin's activity.https://t.co/7qwddnLZ7R
— Khodorkovsky Center (@mbk_center) October 30, 2019
Facebook investigators identified and suspended 3 networks of accounts that attempted to interfere in the domestic politics of eight African countries, and were tied to a Russian businessman (Yevgeniy Prigozhin) accused of meddling in past U.S. elections: https://t.co/jPwLECyXLw
— Olga Belogolova (@olgs7) October 30, 2019
Facebook says it suspends accounts tied to Putin ally for meddling... (Putin is on a roll with no signs of slowing down)https://t.co/yfbB6k6GVl
— Res ipsa loquitur (@Const_Overhaul) October 30, 2019
Facebook says it suspends accounts tied to Putin ally for meddling in Africa https://t.co/IBtx4F7h9l
— Chris Bing (@Bing_Chris) October 30, 2019
Just in time...NOT!https://t.co/puxErA9av9
— Randy Barbato (@Randybarbato) October 30, 2019
"FB removes Africa accts linked 2 Ru troll factory. Fake networks in 8 nations r connected 2 man allegedly behind disinfo empire...target Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique,Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Sudan, Libya." https://t.co/O66nS3I6Ge
— J.Doyle (@sibersong) October 31, 2019
"Moscow’s aim appears to be to bolster existing governments and smear pro-western opposition parties. ... grooming a new generation of African 'leaders' and undercover 'agents', and pushing out former colonial powers such as France or the UK." https://t.co/IXSY0wrKC4
— Jeffrey Smith (@Smith_JeffreyT) October 31, 2019
Facebook has taken down accounts linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin – the businessman allegedly behind #Russia’s notorious troll factory – which were actively seeking to influence the politics of several African countries, including #Centrafrique, #DRC and #Sudan https://t.co/wZ7H2Zz5MX
— Mark Anderson (@markc_anderson) October 31, 2019
Facebook removes Africa accounts linked to Russian troll factory
— Socialist Voice ? (@SocialistVoice) October 30, 2019
Fake networks in eight nations are connected to man allegedly behind disinformation empire https://t.co/nadILSrgdE
Facebook removes Africa accounts linked to Russian troll factory https://t.co/DLTs6NVgva
— Jimmy Kainja (@JKainja) October 30, 2019
Nice to see I was right about using instant messengers more aggressively as core parts of an infowar campaign. https://t.co/Pn8BAPiAdl
— thaddeus e. grugq (@thegrugq) October 31, 2019
There’s a prediction still waiting though. I’m wondering if 2020 will be the year. ?
Facebook takes down disinformation network linked to indicted Russian financier https://t.co/nbVda1FKo0 via @politico
— Shelly R Kirchoff (@ShellyRKirchoff) October 30, 2019