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Facebook removed a network linked to Crimea-based media organizations NewsFront and SouthFront on May 5, 2020, after Meta said fake accounts were being used as part of coordinated inauthentic behavior. Meta’s report counted 46 Pages, 91 Facebook accounts, two Groups and one Instagram account. The outlets had been active for years, according to contemporaneous reporting, but the sources do not establish when every account or Page began operating.
What Facebook removed in May 2020
Meta’s April 2020 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report, published May 5, recorded the removal of 46 Facebook Pages, 91 Facebook accounts, two Facebook Groups and one Instagram account. Meta linked the activity to individuals in Russia and the Donbass region of Ukraine, and to NewsFront and SouthFront, which it described as media organizations in Crimea.
Meta said the network posted in Russian, English, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Serbian, Georgian, Indonesian and Farsi, with a focus on regions around the world. The language list and removal totals describe the properties Meta identified; they do not measure how many people saw the posts or were persuaded by them.
Why Facebook removed the network
Meta said the enforcement rationale was coordinated inauthentic behavior: fake accounts used in a coordinated effort to mislead people about who was behind the activity and what they were doing. Meta described influence operations as “coordinated efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal where fake accounts are central to the operation.” Its report said the investigation connected the network to NewsFront and SouthFront.
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In its account of the removal, CyberScoop reported on May 6, 2020 that the fake accounts had been used to post material and generate engagement. It said the posts addressed the coronavirus pandemic, the Syrian civil war, Crimea, U.S. elections and NATO. That topic list comes from CyberScoop’s reporting; Meta’s takedown report does not adjudicate the truth or intent of every individual post.
Meta also said its policy calls for broad enforcement against properties connected to an operation and the people and organizations behind it when it finds foreign or government interference. The report describes Meta’s own policy and practice, not an independent assessment of how consistently the company applied it.
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What “years” of activity means—and what it does not
CyberScoop described the outlets’ use of Facebook as spanning years. The sources do not establish an exact start date for every account or Page in the removed network, so the broad time span should not be read as a precise operating history for each property. Meta’s report documents the investigation and May 2020 removals, not a complete timeline of every account.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThe network’s removal also does not establish that Russian influence activity ended. Meta said it monitors attempts by previously removed networks to re-establish a presence, but later campaigns should be treated as distinct unless evidence connects them to the same operators or accounts.
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How to read claims about NewsFront, SouthFront and MH17
Meta’s report establishes its attribution of the removed network to individuals in Russia and Donbass and to NewsFront and SouthFront. Broader claims about the outlets’ funding or relationship with Russian authorities come from other reporting, not from Meta’s takedown record.
CyberScoop reported that NewsFront was funded by Russia’s Federal Security Service, attributing the claim to the German newspaper Die Zeit as cited by the Atlantic Council. It also reported that NewsFront began as a Russian state information agency and became a private news agency in 2015, and that sources told Die Zeit some coverage was assigned directly by the Kremlin. Those are attributed reporting claims; Meta’s report does not independently establish them.
CyberScoop described SouthFront as focused more heavily on military news, particularly Ukraine. It cited a 2015 Facebook Page that suggested Ukraine’s government had shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Separately, the article noted that a Dutch-led investigative team issued arrest warrants for four men with ties to Russian intelligence services in connection with the deaths of 298 civilians. The Page’s claim and the later investigative findings are distinct; one should not be presented as confirmation of the other.
Later Facebook campaigns were separate cases
In July 2023, CORRECTIV reported that a pro-Russian network was active on Facebook again by February 2023 at the latest, after Meta had said it disrupted that network the previous year. The report concerned a campaign in Germany involving ads, links to fake sites and propaganda. It is not evidence that the NewsFront/SouthFront network removed in 2020 returned.
In November 2024, CORRECTIV reported on the Doppelganger campaign, a separate operation that used fake websites and social platforms including Facebook and X. The report described actions by service providers that disrupted parts of its infrastructure while also noting continued activity on X. These later cases show why each attribution and timeline needs to be assessed on its own; they do not establish continuity with the 2020 network.
What the record does not show
Meta’s report and the contemporaneous CyberScoop coverage document the takedown, its stated rationale, the linked organizations and the reported subjects of posts. They do not provide a defensible measure of this network’s effect on audience beliefs or election outcomes. Claims about impact should not be inferred from the number of accounts or Pages removed.
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