Multiple Instagram accounts belonging to independent media outlets, civil society organizations, and journalists in Serbia were temporarily suspended or disabled on Jan. 18 after a sudden surge in followers, raising concerns over coordinated online attacks.
The accounts, many newly created with few posts and no followers, had rapidly followed critical media and NGOs, triggering Instagram’s automated moderation system. Meta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, cited “suspicious activity” as the reason for the suspensions.
“This is unprecedented as a large number of accounts across media, photojournalists, and civil society actors were affected simultaneously,” Bojan Perkov of the digital security group Share Foundation told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Perkov said Meta’s automated moderation can mistakenly flag accounts that do not violate platform rules, which appeared to have happened in this case. Most of the suspended accounts were restored the following day.
Authorities have not confirmed whether the Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crime is investigating the incident. Meta did not respond to requests for comment on why the accounts were suspended.
Months of Bot Activity
In the days preceding the suspensions, some media outlets reported unusual spikes in followers. On Jan. 10, portal Nova S recorded more than 40,000 new Instagram followers in a single day without any viral content or increased activity. A day later, 25,000 followers unfollowed the account.
Weekly magazine Radar reported on Jan. 13 that its account gained roughly 8% more followers in under two hours. Similar sudden increases were observed on accounts belonging to Nova S TV, N1 TV, and youth portal Zoomer, with several accounts following multiple media profiles simultaneously.
RFE/RL analysis identified these accounts as likely fake, showing typical bot characteristics: newly created, no followers, and all posts uploaded on the first day with no further activity.
Student organizations that led protests over the deaths of 16 people at the Novi Sad railway station in late 2024 also saw rapid follower growth. The Instagram account “Studenti u blokadi” nearly tripled its followers from 400,000 to one million over several months. Several student accounts were temporarily disabled in November 2025.
Opaque Moderation Rules
Not all suspended accounts experienced unusual follower growth. The civil society group CRTA saw no spike in followers or notifications of rule violations when its account was disabled on Jan. 18 and restored the next day.
“It is strange and symptomatic that multiple accounts were affected on the same day. Even automatic suspensions require some initial trigger,” said Jovana Đurbabić of CRTA. She added that Meta has not provided any explanation.
Perkov criticized Meta’s lack of transparency, noting that Serbia is outside the EU and not covered by regulations such as the Digital Services Act, which sets standards for content moderation and appeals.
Journalists’ Associations React
Several journalist associations condemned the suspensions and called for investigations into the “bot attacks.”
The Association of Electronic Media (ANEM) described the suspensions as a “coordinated effort to disable independent and professional media accounts,” highlighting Meta’s lack of warning or explanation.
The Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina called the incident a “coordinated attempt at digital sabotage targeting independent media reporting on public interest issues.”
Serbia recorded the highest number of attacks on journalists in the Western Balkans in 2025, according to the Council of Europe’s Platform for the Promotion of Journalist Safety, with 33 of 59 reported cases originating in Serbia.
Freedom House ranked Serbia among countries with the largest decline in freedoms over the past decade, citing tightened media control and attacks on journalists.