Egypt

Twitter released a dataset containing a network with 2,541 accounts, which it linked to Egyptian news agency El Fagr. According to Twitter, the media group ‘created inauthentic accounts to amplify messaging critical of Iran, Qatar and Turkey’ and was taking direction from the Egyptian Government. The network amplified genuine news coverage from El Fagr as well as stories from fringe media organisations focusing on the conflict in Yemen and other issues of geopolitical relevance to Egypt. Some account personas attempted to impersonate news outlets, such as @Skynewseurope_e, while others impersonated individuals of other nationalities claiming to be ‘100% Saudi’ or ‘Emirati and proud’. The success of the fake news network varied: one impersonating a Yemeni Radio station had only four followers. Accounts linked to El Fagr have also been removed from Facebook. In late 2019, for example, Facebook removed 163 Facebook accounts, 51 pages, 33 groups and 4 Instagram accounts that were involved in coordinated inauthentic behaviour. The Facebook network disseminated content supportive of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt and critical of Qatar, Iran, Turkey and Yemen’s southern separatist movement.