Meta has removed 150 fake Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with members of the HDZ party's youth organisation after the non-governmental organisation GONG identified and reported them, the NGO said on Friday.

“In its Q1 2024 security report, Meta, one of the world’s largest technology companies and owner of Facebook and Instagram, states that GONG’s research prompted it to independently investigate the case of the fake accounts active among the posts on the official Facebook account of the HDZ party,” GONG said in a statement.

In the report, Meta found that the identified fake accounts violated community guidelines against coordinated inauthentic behaviour, resulting in the removal of 150 accounts from the two social networks.

Meta found a link between the accounts and individuals from the HDZ Youth

Although the individuals involved in the creation of the fake accounts tried to conceal their identities, Meta found a link between the accounts and individuals from the HDZ Youth, whose leader Maksimilijan Simrak is a member of parliament, GONG said.

The non-governmental organisation recalled that on 20 February it had discovered that posts on the HDZ’s official Facebook account were liked and shared by a number of suspicious accounts with a small number of followers, almost identical creation dates, low activity, little personal information and profile photos stolen from other people.

The accounts were active exclusively under HDZ posts, liking and commenting positively on HDZ and criticising and insulting the opposition and citizens participating in protests.

As for other political parties, there was no significant presence of fake profiles or evidence of coordinated actions.

After being identified, the fake profiles changed their names and profile photos the same evening and continued their activities.