Meta Removes Over 160 Accounts Linked To Hamas

Meta deleted over 160 accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were linked to Hamas terrorist organization.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the accounts were primarily operated in the Gaza Strip and targeted “Palestinian territories.” The Post noted that “[t]he accounts primarily posted news stories, cartoons and memes in Arabic about current events in the region, including the postponed Palestinian election, criticism of Israeli defense policy, Fatah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and supportive commentary about Hamas.”

In 1997, Hamas was declared a terrorist group by the United States.

The pages were removed for what Meta calls “coordinated inauthentic behavior” (CIB) and had thousands of followers. Meta’s efforts were detailed in the company’s “Adversarial Threat Report” posted on Wednesday.

Meta explained that CIB is “coordinated attempts to manipulate public discussion for a strategically important goal, where fake accounts form the core of the operation.” The Post observes that $21,000 was spent on Instagram and Facebook ads. Most of this expenditure was in U.S. dollar.

Meta observed that pages appeared to be run by news sites from Israel, West Bank and Sinai Peninsula. 

“The networks used different behaviors, but all have one thing in common — each actively coordinated to target people and abuse our systems,” Meta wrote. “As we continue building our understanding of these emerging threats, we will keep sharing our findings with industry peers, independent researchers, law enforcement and policymakers – including on these new disruptions — so we can collectively improve our defenses. External experts can help us refine our approach.

One post provided by Meta cautioned against “alleged attempts by Israel to impersonate charities in order to gather information for operations and a post from the Palestine 21 news network,” according to The Post.

Twitter is less likely to respond to accounts belonging to terrorist groups, although it has removed accounts linked to Hamas, Hezbollah, and other organizations after many requests. 

Twitter first distinguished between terrorist groups that were political or military. In 2019, House members responded strongly and wrote to Twitter that “this distinction is not meaningful, nor is it widely shared. According to the United States Government, Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organisations. Period.”

Following a review of the account, they were eventually suspended.

“Twitter’s policy is to remove or terminate all accounts it identifies as owned or operated by, or directly affiliated with, any designated foreign terrorist association. Twitter will identify an account that is affiliated with Hamas and Hizballah if it finds one. [sic], Twitter’s policy is to terminate that account,” a Twitter spokesperson wrote to the House at the time.

He added that “Twitter also takes significant steps to identify accounts that are not directly affiliated with a designated foreign terrorist organization but which nonetheless promote or support violent extremism.”