MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : DIRTY INTELLIGENCE BY KURDISH PUK

Facebook closes accounts linked to Kurdish intelligence in Iraq

The accounts were linked to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and targeted its rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Adam Lucente@Adam_Lucente 6 June 2020  AL MONITOR

Facebook closed several accounts and pages linked to Kurdish intelligence in Iraq last month. The pages were used by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in its political rivalry with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), according to findings from a report released by Facebook today.

In May, Facebook closed 324 pages, 71 accounts, five groups and 31 Instagram accounts that it linked to the Zanyari agency, according to a Facebook statement. The intelligence agency is controlled by the PUK, which is the second largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan and dominates Sulaimaniyah province. The strongholds of the largest party, the KDP, are in Erbil and Dahuk provinces. The PUK is historically close to Iran, while the KDP has an economic relationship with Turkey.

The users engaged in what Facebook describes as “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” This is defined as “coordinated efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal where fake accounts are central to the operation,” the Facebook statement read.

The accounts and pages in question impersonated local politicians and posed as news agencies. Around $270,000 was spent on advertisements promoting the content and more than 4 million people followed at least one of the pages, according to Facebook’s May report for coordinated inauthentic behavior released today.

They content they pushed advanced anti-KDP narratives involving the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Some of the posts were about alleged ties between some Kurdish politicians and Turkey, according to the report. The KDP is often criticized for its economic relationship with Turkey due to Turkey’s military conflict with Kurdish groups in Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

The Facebook report also included a post showing the late Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s picture next to the KDP’s logo. The Kurdish-language caption claimed his wife was in the KDP stronghold of Erbil, reading “Confirmed by evidence: Abu Bakr El-Baghdadi’s wife is in Erbil. If false, Let Erbil airport deny it.”

The social network research firm Graphika likewise found that the posts targeted the KDP. A report Graphika released today on Facebook’s findings showed that the accounts criticized KRG Prime Minister and senior KDP figure Masrour Barzani for his speech on the KRG’s financial crisis last month, for example. The posts alleged that Masrour sought to blame the region’s economic situation on his cousin, KRG President Nechirvan Barzani, according to Graphika.