Facebook’s Kurdistan Takedown

Platform takes down inauthentic network in Iraqi region

On May 29, Facebook took down over 400 assets based in Iraqi Kurdistan for coordinated inauthentic behavior. The assets on Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) posted on a range of issues, but they typically supported the Kurdish political party the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and its co-leader Lahur “Sheikh Jangi” Talabani and criticized the governing Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and its leaders from the Barzani family.