Facebook took down a network of self-proclaimed Russian “info-war” pages and accounts on May 6, 2019, ruling that they had used fake accounts to run their public-facing activities.

Social-media platforms have taken down multiple clusters of Russian fake accounts over the past two years. The eight pages Facebook removed on May 6 claimed to be Russian activists, and largely posted in Russian, about Russia’s role in the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

There was insufficient open-source evidence to conclude whether they were connected to Russian authorities.

The pages pointed users toward three websites that in turn shared content from a variety of state propaganda outlets, including RT, Zvezda TV (the Russian Army broadcaster), and a range of unofficial Kremlin supporters. Evidence from the websites, however, suggests that they were designed to monetize propaganda by generating ad revenue and spreading malware.

The pages were not especially popular: the most-followed page, created in 2012, had just over 21,000 followers. All but one of the others had under 2,000.

Announcing the action, Facebook said:

“We removed 97 Facebook accounts, Pages and Groups that were involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior as part of a network emanating from Russia that focused on Ukraine. The individuals behind this activity operated fake accounts to run Pages and Groups, disseminate their content, and increase engagement, and also to drive people to an off-platform domain that aggregated various web content.”

This post analyzes the first of the two sets removed in the May 6 takedown, including the Facebook pages and the websites closest to them.

Self-Proclaimed “Info-War”

Four of the eight pages were linked to a website called infopolk.ru. The name translates from Russian as “info regiment,” and the website and associated pages called on users to “take part in the InfoWar.”