Promote the need for sincere information for a democracy based on trust
On August 31, 2020, Facebook removed a network of 55 Facebook accounts,42 Pages and 36 Instagram accounts attributed to the US-based strategic communications firm CLS Strategies for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB). In its report, Facebook stated that the accounts violated itspolicy against foreign interference or coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign entity and that the accounts focused on Venezuela, Mexico and Bolivia. Facebook shared a portion of this network with the authors onAugust 26, 2020. In our investigation, we found that the network involved in this takedown operated fake and duplicate user accounts under the same names. Based on public records, we were able to connect some of the assets on Facebook to CLS Strategies personnel and determine that the firm hadworked or was working on behalf of the Bolivian government.
