16 June 2022
June 16th, 2022
In April 2022, a number of Iranian feminist Instagram accounts become target of an unusual attack. The accounts were flooded by fake followers, and during the course of four weeks, around 1 million bots flooded 25 Instagram accounts connected to the Iranian #MeToo movement.
The objective of the attack can be discussed, but it is safe to say that the attacker likely has the intention to intimidate and harass the account holders. A potential objective could be account suspension, as accounts with large amounts of fake followers can be banned by Instagram.
The affected Instagram accounts became unmanageable and the administrators were forced to change the profiles of the account to “private” to avoid more bots to join.
Qurium decided to investigate the attacks in an attempt to find out where the bots where coming from and who controlled them. The forensics analysis of more than 45,000 Instagram bots lead us into the vibrant market of Social Media Marketing (SMM) in Pakistan, where Followers, Likes, Views and Shares are sold in batches to increase the popularity of social media accounts, including Instagram Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Qurium forensics report: Weaponizing Instagram against the Iranian #Metoo movement
Contacts
Digital forensics: Tord Lundström, t@virtualroad.org, Technical Director
Media: Clara Zid info@virtualroad.org, Media and Outreach Manager