On April 12, Facebook removed 234 Indonesian pages, accounts, and groups for spreading polarizing political messaging just a week before the country’s elections.

Indonesia’s 192 million voters go to the polls on Wednesday, April 17, for presidential, parliamentary, and local elections. The presidential race pits incumbent Joko Widodo, or “Jokowi,” against former general Prabowo Subianto, who has been accused of human rights abuses and seeks to bolster the military establishment dramatically. Indonesia reportedly has the fourth highest number of Facebook users in the world, making the platform a prime target for manipulation in the country.

Facebook shared the names of some of the pages and groups with the DFRLab shortly before the takedown. These assets mixed attacks on the incumbent president and praise for his challenger with apolitical content, possibly as an audience-building technique.

In an update to an earlier blog post, Facebook stated that it had removed these assets:

“…for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior as part of a domestic network in Indonesia. This activity originated in Indonesia and the people behind it misled others about who they were and what they were doing. They used fake accounts and frequently posted about local and political news including topics like upcoming elections, alleged election fraud, candidate views, and alleged misconduct of political figures. As always, we took action based on the behavior of these actors, not the content they posted.”

Their impact was low, as measured by follower numbers and engagements, but their potential reach was higher because of the number of groups they managed.

A Known Fake Name

Three pages were using the identity of a known false persona, Annisa Madaniyah, which had previously spread a hoax about the North Maluku gold mine being given to the Chinese and had also posted comment insulting Jokowi’s mother in 2017.

The accounts administered the same two groups: Annisa Madaniyah Vs Jokowi Dodo and Annisa Madaniyah

The pages often published the same posts within a tight time-frame, suggesting coordination across the network.