Operation Red Card

An Indian PR Firm Created Inauthentic Accounts and Used Coordinated Behavior to Post Anti-Saudi, Anti-Emirati, Pro-Qatar, and Football-Related Content

This report examines a campaign attributed by Facebook to an Indian digital marketing firm, aRep Global, that focused on political issues throughout the Gulf region, alongside topical issues in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Western Europe, and the world of professional football. Its content covered a range of themes yet showed a consistent current of hostility toward the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, praise for Qatar’s rulers, and some hostility toward Iran. We have dubbed this campaign “Operation Red Card.”