The company Meta removed from its platforms in 2022 a network of coordinated inauthentic behavior associated with the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the company announced.
Meta's report covers the fourth quarter of 2022 and it lists the global actions that the company has taken to prevent illicit operations.
In the part related to Serbia, Meta stated that it has taken action against the Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB) network in Serbia, which is said to be linked to employees of the Serbian Progressive Party, known as its Internet Team, and civil servants from of all of Serbia.
"They targeted the domestic audience on many internet services, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, in addition to local media in order to create a perception of widespread and authentic support for Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party," stated Meta.
Meta also stated that the company, in previous reporting on threats, pointed to the rise of domestic influences, which are especially worrisome when they combine deception techniques with the real power of the state.
"The three CIB networks we took down last quarter — in Serbia, Cuba and Bolivia — continued this trend and were in some way connected to the governments or ruling parties in their countries. Each targeted local populations to praise the government and criticize the opposition," she said. is a company.
Meta specified that in the specified period it removed 5.374 Facebook accounts, 12 groups and 100 accounts on Instagram for violating the policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior.
"This network was created in Serbia and was primarily aimed at the domestic audience in that country," stated Meta.
Unlike the traditional troll farms the company detected over the years in Albania, Nicaragua and Russia, which were run by operators working out of a single office or cluster of offices, the Serbia operation reportedly relied instead on individuals recruited from across Serbia. .
The company also stated that the people behind this activity were using fake accounts, some of which were detected by Meta and disabled prior to investigation.
They managed these accounts with groups, mass comments and "like" content to make them appear more popular than they were.
"They also posted original memes criticizing oppositionists in Serbia. This network usually posted in Serbian about news and political events in the region, adapting comments to each post they boosted. Outside of social media platforms, this operation also actively commented directly on websites media, in support of the government and its actions," the report states.
The company also noted that the Serbian network initially coordinated the cross-platform operation and its publishing efforts through a stand-alone web application that allowed operators to comment and post on various news websites and log into social media.
Meta also stated that in 2020, after investigating advice from Twitter colleagues, a group of fake accounts were also removed for violating Meta's guidelines against spam and inauthentic behavior.
"Based on the insights we gained from these earlier investigations combined with further threat research, we were able to connect them and uncover a wider scope of this activity across the Internet and attribute this CIB network to employees of the Serbian Progressive Party, known as its Internet Team, and state officials from all over Serbia".
The company also stated that the entire operation paid for at least $150.000, spent on Facebook and Instagram ads.
The SNS did not publicly comment on Meta's allegations.
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