TAG Bulletin: Q1 2020

27 May 2020, 18:00 by Shane Huntley

This bulletin includes coordinated influence operation campaigns terminated on our platforms in Q1 of 2020. It was last updated on May 27, 2020.

January

We terminated 3 YouTube channels as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Iran. The campaign was linked to the Iranian state-sponsored International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM) network, and was reproducing IUVM content covering Iran’s strikes into Iraq and U.S. policy on oil. We received leads from Graphika that supported us in this investigation.

February

We terminated 1 advertising account and 82 YouTube channels as part of our actions against a coordinated influence operation linked to Egypt. The campaign was sharing political content in Arabic supportive of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain and critical of Iran and Qatar. We found evidence of this campaign being tied to the digital marketing firm New Waves based in Cairo. This campaign was consistent with similar findings reported by Facebook.

March

We terminated 3 advertising accounts, 1 AdSense account, and 11 YouTube channels as part of our actions against a coordinated influence operation linked to India. The campaign was sharing messages in English supportive of Qatar. This campaign was consistent with similar findings reported by Facebook.

We banned 1 Play developer and terminated 68 YouTube channels as part of our actions against a coordinated influence operation. The campaign was posting political content in Arabic supportive of Turkey and critical of the UAE and Yemen. This campaign was consistent with similar findings reported by Twitter.

We terminated 1 advertising account, 1 AdSense account, 17 YouTube channels and banned 1 Play developer as part of our actions against a coordinated influence operation linked to Egypt. The campaign was posting political content in Arabic supportive of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain and critical of Iran and Qatar. This campaign was consistent with similar findings reported by Twitter.

We banned 1 Play developer and terminated 78 YouTube channels as part of our actions against a coordinated influence operation linked to Serbia. The domestic campaign was posting pro-Serbian political content. This campaign was consistent with similar findings reported by Twitter.

We terminated 18 YouTube channels as part of our continued investigation into a coordinated influence operation linked to Indonesia. The domestic campaign was targeting the Indonesian provinces Papua and West Papua with messaging in opposition to the Free Papua Movement. This campaign was consistent with similar findings reported by Twitter.