On August 1, 2019, Facebook removed 387 assets engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior across its platforms, some of which were connected to two digital marketing companies publishing divisive socio-political content in the Middle East.

In its announcement, Facebook stated:

“They [the Facebook assets] also frequently posted about local news, politics, elections and topics including alleged support of terrorist groups by Qatar and Turkey, Iran’s activity in Yemen, the conflict in Libya, successes of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, and independence for Somaliland.”

Two companies were linked to this operation: New Waves in Egypt and Newave in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The assets targeted a local and regional audience across Egypt, the UAE, and neighboring countries in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. While the private companies ran the campaigns and there was no direct connection to any state government, the assets’ anti-Qatar and anti-Muslim Brotherhood narratives, in particular, largely paralleled the political interests of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain.

Campaigns promoting political and ideological content, but motivated by commercial interests, are not novel; the DFRLab previously reported on an Israeli marketing firm that orchestrated a similar far-reaching influence campaign that targeted audiences in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. This most recent takedown reinforced that marketing firms continue to command inauthentic assets on social media platforms.

New Waves from Egypt and the UAE

New Waves, one of the firms linked to the assets, has been in operation since 2015 and is based in Egypt.