Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Explained

By Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy

“Coordinated inauthentic behavior.” If you keep up with news from Facebook, you’ve probably heard us use this term before. In recent months, we’ve removed numerous Pages and accounts for engaging in it — but what does it actually mean? And how is it different from “fake news”? I lead the team responsible for enforcing against this behavior and in this video, I’ll give you a quick rundown of what it means.

Past announcements involving coordinated inauthentic behavior:

November 13, 2018: More Information About Last Week’s Takedowns. Over the last year, we have been much more proactive in finding and removing inauthentic behavior, including from foreign actors. October 11, 2018: Removing Additional Inauthentic Activity from Facebook. Removing 559 Pages and 251 accounts that have consistently broken our rules against spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior. August 28, 2018: Removing Myanmar Military Officials From Facebook. Banning 20 Burmese individuals and organizations from Facebook. August 21, 2018: Taking Down More Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior. Removing multiple Pages, groups and accounts on Facebook and Instagram. July 31, 2018: Removing Bad Actors on Facebook. Removing 32 Pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram.