Image credit: @ZKharazian/DFRLabOnline information and disinformation has been playing a pivotal role in shaping public opinion throughout the Middle East and North Africa for over a decade. In the past week alone, Atlantic Council researchers with the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) have published four articles examining the origins of various MENA-based disinformation campaigns and the tell-tale signs of their inauthentic operations. From faux fact-checkers in the Tunisian presidential election to Turkish Twitter bots denouncing Kurdish groups, these stories span numerous countries and topics. On October 3, 2019, Facebook removed 163 Facebook accounts, 51 pages, 33 groups, and four Instagram accounts for coordinated inauthentic behavior originating from Egypt. A majority of the removed pages posted content about Egyptian politics, praising the current government led by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and denouncing the Muslim Brotherhood for sowing chaos in Egypt.

Source: The North Africa Journal October 17, 2019 19:52 UTC