Belarus created fake accounts to inflame migrants: Facebook’s Meta | Refugee News

A meta-report says the Belarusian KGB has created dozens of fake accounts to fuel the migrant crisis on the border with Poland.
Facebook’s parent company Meta has linked Belarusian KGB to setting up dozens of fake social media accounts of people posing as journalists and activists to fuel a migrant crisis on Belarus-Poland border .
On Wednesday, a Meta report said it had deleted 41 Facebook accounts, five Facebook groups and four Instagram accounts for violating its policy on “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”
The fake profiles were used to criticize the behavior of Polish authorities, including to spread allegations that Polish border guards used force and intimidation against migrants and refugees, he said.
“These fictional characters posted reviews of Poland in English, Polish and Kurdish, including photos and videos of Polish border guards allegedly violating migrants’ rights, and compared Poland’s treatment of migrants with that of other countries, ”the report said.
“Although the people behind this tried to cover up their identity and coordination, our investigation found links to the Belarusian KGB,” he said.
The Belarusian KGB could not be reached for comment.
Facebook has come under global pressure from regulators, lawmakers and employees to tackle abuse on its services. He told Reuters news agency in September he was more aggressive in shutting down coordinated groups of real user accounts engaging in certain harmful activity on his platform, including attempts to influence elections. in the countries.
The countries of the European Union have accused Belarus of creating a migrant crisis on the eastern borders of the bloc by encouraging thousands of people from the Middle East and Africa to try to cross Poland and Lithuania, to get avenge Western sanctions against Minsk.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko denies having done so and blames the crisis on the EU.
Human rights groups say at least 13 people have died as people camped in freezing conditions at the border. The three EU countries bordering Belarus have defended their approach of pushing back migrants without individually assessing their cases or giving them a realistic chance to seek asylum as guaranteed under international humanitarian law.
The Meta report said the company separately deleted 31 Facebook accounts, four groups and four Instagram accounts that are believed to originate in Poland and focus on audiences in Belarus and Iraq.
The report did not link the accounts to the Polish state, but said they were meant to discourage people from trying to enter the EU.
“These fake personalities claimed to share their own negative experiences while trying to get from Belarus to Poland and published articles about the difficult life of migrants in Europe,” he said.
“They also published articles on Poland’s strict anti-migrant policies and anti-migrant neo-Nazi activity in Poland.”