The company Meta, owner of Facebook, said in a report published this Wednesday (1) that the secret police of the Belarusian dictatorship, the KGB, was acting on dozens of fake profiles on the social network with the aim of boosting the ongoing migration crisis. months drags on the country’s border with the European Union (EU). More than 40 accounts have been removed for this reason.
The fake profiles were reportedly used to criticize the behavior of authorities in Poland, where there is the largest influx of migrants, with false information that included allegations of intimidation and use of force by Polish border guards. The publications were in English, Polish and Kurdish, says the Meta report.
Although the actual identity of the accounts has been concealed, the document states that it was possible to find relationships with the Belarusian KGB. On the other hand, Meta also points out that 31 fake profiles originating in Poland were deleted for similar reasons, although it was not possible to link them to the country’s government.
The fake accounts claimed to be sharing their own negative experiences as they tried to cross the Belarus border into Poland and wrote about the plight of migrants in Europe, the report details. Posts about anti-immigration measures in Poland and about neo-Nazi groups were also found.
The EU accuses Belarus’ dictatorship, led by Aleksandr Lukachenko, of pushing migrants towards the borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland — member countries of the bloc — as revenge after sanctions were applied to the country, known for cracking down opponents and demonstrations for democracy. The Belarusian dictator has already admitted, in different public demonstrations, that his troops encourage migrants to enter the EU illegally.
Human rights groups say at least 13 people have died as a result of precarious conditions in makeshift border camps. The sites began to be evacuated by Belarus soldiers in November, and migrants were taken to warehouses in the region. EU officials say the situation has improved with the measure, but there are still 8,000 to 10,000 migrants in the region.
The European bloc proposed this Wednesday a controversial package with the justification of easing the situation at the borders. The document stipulates that Latvia, Lithuania and Poland will be allowed to detain migrants in asylum processing centers for up to 16 weeks — the period currently allowed is four weeks.
Civil society organizations, already critical of the way in which the EU has dealt with the migratory flow, claim that the bloc has been excessively influenced by Poland’s ruling conservative nationalist party, Law and Justice (PiS), and that the measures announced violate international asylum law.
Twitter excludes profiles linked to governments
Twitter also announced this Thursday (2) that it has excluded about 3,500 accounts that carried out government propaganda operations.
Most of the publications published the official speech of the Communist Party of China in relation to the Uighur Muslim minority in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, according to the social network. About 100 accounts were linked to a company linked to the provincial government.
International organizations claim that Beijing has arbitrarily detained Uighur people and subjected them to forced labor and political indoctrination in hundreds of detention centers.
Other accounts excluded from the social network were linked to authorities in countries such as Mexico, Russia, Tanzania, Uganda and Venezuela.
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