For the employees of the Nicaraguan Institute of Posts and Telecommunications (Telcor), it was an office job like any other, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a lunch break to recharge and some weekend. For Meta, Facebook’s parent company, it was a troll factory (troll factory, in English) of the Nicaraguan government to manipulate online public debate. Monday 1er November, the Californian group announced that it had detected and eliminated 937 Facebook accounts, 363 Instagram accounts, 140 Facebook pages and 24 social network groups that shared pro-government messages and discredited opponents.
“It was one of the largest intergovernmental troll operations that we have eliminated to date, with several state entities participating in this activity at the same time., can we read in the detailed report published by Meta. It was mainly carried out by Telcor employees from the headquarters of the public company in Managua. Other fake accounts, smaller, (…) were managed by the Supreme Court and the National Social Security Institute. “
Daniel Ortega is running for a fourth term
All “These groups were technically connected to the main operation, so they were not separate efforts, they were offshoots of the main network”said Meta’s global head of security against influence trading Ben Nimmo, adding that “The troll factory created or invented so-called means of communication on sites like Blogspot and WordPress, and distributed them through Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and TikTok accounts, as well as Facebook and Instagram.”
The troll factory had been operating since April 2018, when Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega violently repressed protests calling for his resignation, killing at least 300 people. In power since 2007, Mr. Ortega is seeking a fourth consecutive term on Sunday. Seven of his potential opponents for the presidential election have been arrested – imprisoned or under house arrest – since June, as well as about forty opponents.
Ben Nimmo specified that this deletion was linked to ” behviour “ users on the platform, as well as “Recourse to false accounts” and not at “Published content”, Meta does not want this removal to be seen as a political commitment on his part.