Meta Platforms, the recently renamed company that owns Facebook, said Monday that it had removed a network of accounts linked to the government of President Daniel Ortega and his ruling party ahead of Nicaragua’s general election Sunday.

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       The company said the accounts violated its policy on “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”

       The social media giant removed 937 Facebook accounts, 24 groups, 140 pages and 363 Instagram accounts (Meta owns Instagram). In terms of reach, “about 585,000 accounts followed one or more of these Pages, about 74,500 accounts joined one or more of these Groups and about 125,000 accounts followed one or more of these Instagram accounts,” according to the company’s report.

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       The accounts removed were largely aimed at domestic audiences and had ties to the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front and Ortega’s government, which has been engaged for months in a crackdown on opponents and dissent.

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       The accounts involved a complex web of brands that had a presence not only on Facebook and Instagram but also on TikTok, Blogspot, Telegram and YouTube.

       “This was one of the most cross-government troll operations we’ve disrupted to date, with multiple state entities participating in this activity at once,” the report said.

       Read Facebook's latest report on 'coordinated inauthentic behavior'

       The network was operated primarily by staffers from Nicaragua’s Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services, or Telcor, off the postal headquarters in the capital, Managua, while smaller clusters of accounts were operated from other institutions, including Nicaragua’s supreme court.

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       “This network was an example of a ‘troll farm’ — a coordinated effort by co-located operators to corrupt or manipulate public discourse by using fake accounts to build personas across platforms and mislead people about who’s behind them,” according to the Meta Platforms report.

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       The report said the network’s activity began in April 2018, when the accounts started spreading misinformation and discrediting students who were leading nationwide demonstrations against the government. In 2020, the activity shifted from discrediting protesters and the opposition to amplifying the accounts and posting pro-government content.

       Facebook said it detected the troll farm through its investigation of this type of behavior and after reviewing public reports on this activity in Nicaragua.

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       Ortega is pursuing a fourth consecutive term in the Sunday election. International observers have criticized his government for the clampdown on the opposition, which has led to arrests and prompted prominent dissidents to flee the country.

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       A June report by Human Rights Watch detailing the number of arrests by the government concluded that it appeared “to be part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent, instill fear, and restrict political participation.”

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       In a joint statement issued June 22, 59 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council pressed Ortega’s government to end “the harassment of journalists and human rights defenders and to allow civil society organizations to operate in safe and enabling environments, without fear of reprisal.”

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       In recent years, Facebook has come under increased pressure to crack down on the proliferation of misinformation on its platforms, particularly surrounding politics and elections. The deleterious role of misinformation on political discourse and elections has been underscored by the Facebook Papers, a trove of internal documents leaked by former Facebook product manager turned whistleblower Frances Haugen.

       The Facebook report also said that the company has taken down troll farms similar to the one detected in Nicaragua in Thailand, Sudan, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia and Uganda this year.

       Read more:

       From rebel to strongman: How Daniel Ortega became the thing he fought against

       Nicaragua under growing pressure to end crackdown on political opponents

       As election looms, Nicaraguan government arrests Ortega’s challengers

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