Unter diesem Titel berichtet die NYT vom 06.09.2019 über Kampagnen in den social networks zur Unterstützung des sudanesischen Militärregimes, insbesondere der RSF, und anderer repressiver Regimes in der MENA-Region. Sie gingen aus von der Firma eines ehemaligen ägyptischen Militärs, der mit Sissi befreundet ist, und einer Schwesterfirma in den VAR. Die Kampagnen hatten 14 Millionen Follower erreicht. Faceebook hat diese Vorgänge Anfang August veröffentlicht.
Days after Sudanese soldiers massacred pro-democracy demonstrators in Khartoum in June, an obscure digital marketing company in Cairo began deploying keyboard warriors to a second front: a covert operation to praise Sudan’s military on social media.
The Egyptian company, run by a former military officer and self-described expert on “internet warfare,” paid new recruits $180 a month to write pro-military messages using fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Telegram. Instructors provided hashtags and talking points. […]
The secretive Egyptian effort to support Sudan’s military on social media this summer by the company in Cairo, New Waves, was just one part of a much bigger operation that spanned the Middle East and targeted people in at least nine Middle Eastern and North African countries, according to Facebook.
The campaign was exposed on Aug. 1 when Facebook announced that it had shut down hundreds of accounts run by New Waves and an Emirati company with a near-identical name. Working in concert, the two companies used money, deception and fake accounts to leverage their audience of almost 14 million Facebook followers, as well as thousands more on Instagram. […]
“There have been so many fake accounts,” said Mohamed Suliman, a Boston-based engineer allied with Sudan’s protest movement. “Fake news is a real source of danger for Sudan. If there is ever a counterrevolution, one of the regime’s main tools will be social media.” […]
Facebook said the Egyptian and Emirati companies worked together to manage 361 compromised accounts and pages with a reach of 13.7 million people. They spent $167,000 on advertising and used false identities to disguise their role in the operation.
Their posts gave a boost to the Libyan warlord Khalifa Hifter, who counts Egypt and the United Arab Emirates among his staunchest allies, praised the United Arab Emirates and slammed the wealthy Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a sworn enemy of the Saudis, Egyptians and Emiratis.