Rival troll networks from France and Russia have been trying to meddle with politics in North Africa and the Middle East, according to a blog post published today by Facebook Inc.

Facebook said it had taken down three separate networks for violating the company’s policy against foreign or government interference. The networks were accused of coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of government entities.

Russia’s infamous troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, has been in the spotlight numerous times in the past for creating fake accounts to sway people’s beliefs. But according to Facebook’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, this is the first time a Western military organization has been found violating the company’s policies on the matter of coordinated inauthentic behavior.

“Each of the networks we removed today targeted people outside of their country of origin, primarily targeting Africa, and also some countries in the Middle East,” wrote Gleicher. “We found all three of them as a result of our proactive internal investigations and worked with external researchers to assess the full scope of these activities across the internet.”

Some 84 Facebook accounts were removed that originated in France. From the same network, Facebook also took down 14 Instagram profiles, six Facebook pages and nine groups, all of which had amassed about 5,000 followers and 1,600 group members.

Facebook said the network posted mostly French and Arabic about news relating to current events, “including France’s policies in Francophone Africa, the security situation in various African countries, claims of potential Russian interference in the election in the Central African Republic, supportive commentary about French military, and criticism of Russia’s involvement in CAR.”

Facebook also removed 63 Facebook accounts, 29 Pages, seven Groups and one Instagram account, all said to have originated in Russia. The content the network posted focused primarily on the Central African Republic. The third network also originated in Russia. It had 211 of its Facebook accounts removed, as well as 126 Page, 16 Groups and 17 Instagram accounts.

“The Russian imperialists are a gangrene on Mali!” read one post from the French network, while the Russian trolls fired back with similar venom in their posts. It’s not the first two countries to have focused on one area, although Facebook said both Russian and French networks engaged with each other, which was unique. The company said that accounts would interact with each other, calling the other out for disseminating fake news.

Post: downloadsource.fr/Flickr