Twitter remove 795 fake propaganda accounts created by Indonesian Government

APRIL 2, 2020 source : Free West Papua campaign

In 2019, investigative journalism website Bellingcat ran an investigation into a co-ordinated propaganda operation being run by the Indonesian Government, involving hundreds of fake social media accounts across multiple platforms in attempt to skew international views of West Papua.

In a major development, Twitter have today announced that they have removed 795 fake accounts created by the Indonesian Government which have been posting pro-government content about West Papua.

Benny Wenda

✔@BennyWenda

Thank you @TwitterSafety for taking these actions and your continued work in identifying and removing fake accounts created by the Indonesian Government. https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1245682438174638083 …

Twitter Safety

✔@TwitterSafety

Replying to @TwitterSafety

Following an investigation originating from a @Bellingcat report on an information operation in Indonesia targeting the West Papuan independence movement, we removed 795 fake accounts pushing content from suspicious “news” websites and promoting pro-government content.

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2:13 PM - Apr 2, 2020

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The Indonesian Government has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on an online propaganda campaign across social media in an attempt to deceive the international community about the situation in West Papua.

Other social media platforms including Facebook have also taken action to remove accounts masquerading as official news outlets posting pro Indonesian Government propaganda about West Papua.

DFRLab

✔@DFRLab

.@Facebook removed accounts masquerading as news outlets from #WestPapua that support #independence – in reality, these accounts pushed narratives in favor of #Indonesia. @AlyssaKann and @EtoBuziashvili took a closer look at some of the trends:https://medium.com/dfrlab/facebook-takes-down-pro-indonesian-pages-targeting-west-papua-3c8b56449bfd …

Facebook takes down pro-Indonesian pages targeting West Papua

Removed pages masked themselves as West Papuan pages while promoting Indonesian state interests

medium.com

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11:16 PM - Oct 11, 2019

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Bellingcat investigators Benjamin Strick and Elise Thomas have compiled a 48 page report on the propaganda campaign called ‘Investigating Information Operations in West Papua’ which can be downloaded here.

We would like to thank Belingcat, Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks for their ongoing work in identifying and removing these fake accounts created by the Indonesian Government.

The truth about Indonesia’s illegal occupation of West Papua and the ongoing genocide will never be hidden. The movement for a Free West Papua is unstoppable and the people of West Papua will be free.