Fake Facebook profiles amplified posts by Bulgaria's ITN party
A network of approximately 120 fake Facebook profiles reportedly coordinated to amplify posts by Bulgaria's "There Is Such a People" (ITN) party during political conflict with a caretaker cabinet. Fact-checkers found that around a third to half of shares on ITN politicians' posts came from these inauthentic profiles.
What happened
A network of approximately 120 fake Facebook profiles created on a similar model reportedly shared posts by ITN party members Pavela Mitova and Stanislav Trifanov during a conflict with Bulgaria's caretaker cabinet.
On 20 February, Mitova posted an allegation that caretaker agriculture minister Ivan Khristanov had created a special room "of corruption" and granted Coalition for Bulgaria party members access to agricultural ministry documents from five years. By 10 March, around 120 of the 336 shares of this post came from inauthentic profiles that each shared the content twice or more.
Reported impact
Trifanov's 4 March post calling for Khristanov's resignation and criticising his non-appearance in parliament received 379 shares, with nearly half coming from inauthentic profiles. Trifanov's 11 March post criticising We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria was shared over 15 times by a single profile.
Index analysis
Factcheck.bg analysis found the fake profiles were created on a similar model and coordinated in sharing content from ITN. The activity patterns across profiles aligned in terms of which ITN content they shared.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.