A Washington, DC-based PR firm linked to the US government and Democratic Party, CLS Strategies, ran a fake news network on Facebook and Instagram, spreading propaganda for Bolivia’s coup regime and the right-wing opposition in Venezuela and Mexico.
by Ben Norton
Part 2 - Facebook deletes CLS Strategies fake news ring
The Grayzone has reported on social media corporations’ US government-backed censorship of independent media outlets and voices critical of US foreign policy. Virtually all of Facebook’s purges of alleged fake accounts have targeted foreign governments and firms in other countries. The CLS Strategies fake news ring is apparently the first time Facebook has ever taken down a US-based operation.
Facebook published a press release on September 1 acknowledging that it had removed a network of 55 fake accounts and 42 pages, along with 36 Instagram profiles, “for violating our policy against foreign interference, which is coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign entity.”
An accompanying report (PDF) released by Facebook acknowledged that these fake accounts portrayed themselves “as independent news entities, civic organizations and political fan Pages,” while some “posed as locals in countries they targeted” and “impersonated political parties.”
The social media giant said the network “posted content in support of the political opposition in Venezuela and the interim government in Bolivia, and criticism of Morena, a political party in Mexico.” It identified the network as being connected to the PR firm CLS Strategies.
Facebook shared the information about this fake news ring with Stanford University’s Internet Observatory, which analyzed the materials and published a report on September 4 (PDF), showing how CLS Strategies created 17 Facebook pages to promote the Venezuelan opposition, along with 11 for the Bolivian coup regime.
A total of 509,000 unique accounts followed one or more of these propaganda pages on Facebook. Some pages were huge, with as many as 163,000 followers, while others had very few subscribers.
The Bolivia pages spread Spanish-language propaganda promoting coup leader Jeanine Áñez, a right-wing extremist from a fringe party that got just 4 percent of the vote in the November election but who was recognized by the United States as the country’s supposed interim president.
The Stanford report noted that the “Venezuela-focused assets supported and promoted Venezuelan opposition leaders but changed in tone in 2020, reflecting factional divides in the opposition and a turn away from opposition president Juan Guaidó.”
Most of these propaganda pages were run out of the United States, although some operatives in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru were involved.
In response to Facebook removing its propaganda network, CLS Strategies published the following statement on its website:
We take very seriously the issues raised by Facebook and others regarding CLS’ past advertising in Latin America. We are conducting an internal investigation aided by the law firm Latham and Watkins to examine these issues. This will also determine steps necessary to ensure future work of CLS meets the highest standards of transparency and advertising platforms, which is what clients expect from us. While this investigation is ongoing, the head of our Latin American practice will be on administrative leave. Importantly, our past client work in Latin America, including opposition to oppressive regimes, was not conducted on behalf of foreign entities – the work was funded and directed by clients inside each country. This makes CLS’s work very different from the foreign influence activities reported by Facebook, and any characterization of CLS’ work in the countries at issue as “foreign” is wrong.
A total of 509,000 unique accounts followed one or more of these propaganda pages on Facebook. Some pages were huge, with as many as 163,000 followers, while others had very few subscribers.
The Bolivia pages spread Spanish-language propaganda promoting coup leader Jeanine Áñez, a right-wing extremist from a fringe party that got just 4 percent of the vote in the November election but who was recognized by the United States as the country’s supposed interim president.
The Stanford report noted that the “Venezuela-focused assets supported and promoted Venezuelan opposition leaders but changed in tone in 2020, reflecting factional divides in the opposition and a turn away from opposition president Juan Guaidó.”
Most of these propaganda pages were run out of the United States, although some operatives in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru were involved.
In response to Facebook removing its propaganda network, CLS Strategies published the following statement on its website:
We take very seriously the issues raised by Facebook and others regarding CLS’ past advertising in Latin America. We are conducting an internal investigation aided by the law firm Latham and Watkins to examine these issues. This will also determine steps necessary to ensure future work of CLS meets the highest standards of transparency and advertising platforms, which is what clients expect from us. While this investigation is ongoing, the head of our Latin American practice will be on administrative leave. Importantly, our past client work in Latin America, including opposition to oppressive regimes, was not conducted on behalf of foreign entities – the work was funded and directed by clients inside each country. This makes CLS’s work very different from the foreign influence activities reported by Facebook, and any characterization of CLS’ work in the countries at issue as “foreign” is wrong.
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