Facebook Erased 2,632 Accounts, Pages, And Groups Due To Fake News

Jyotis - Mar 29, 2019

In the past, Facebook took down a series of accounts that were supported by Iran and ran as actual news organizations.

On March 26, Facebook made an announcement on its removal of 2,632 accounts, pages, and groups because they have reportedly had “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” on the two platforms including Instagram and Facebook.

In this incident, there were three detected operations hailing from Russia, Iran, and Kosovo & Macedonia. Among those, the operation from Russia was considered as the biggest one that had 1,907 accounts, pages, and groups removed. Explaining the massive number, Facebook said a lot of spam hailed from the Russian network; however, a small part of pages in the nation provided news in relation to Ukraine.

In addition, the operation in Russia was running one or many groups with 1.7 million members.

The second target Facebook aimed at this time was the Iranian network with 513 accounts, pages, and groups. The network focused more on the topic of politics, and therefore, it was known for producing fake organization of the media which operate as political groups or legal ones.

A post on Instagram falsified as the BBC. It hailed from the network in Iran.

The network amplified some certain topics such as punishments against Iran, contradictions between Pakistan and India, as well as contradictions between Palestine and Israel. Until February 2019, it paid $15,000 on advertisements, the number was allegedly much bigger than that in 2013.

In the past, Facebook took down a series of accounts that were supported by Iran and ran as actual news organizations. In August last year, on its announcement, the company said that FireEye, a California-based cybersecurity firm, revealed a network named the “Liberty Front Press” including many sites backed by Iran to Facebook.

A post relating to the political topic.

The third network with 212 accounts, pages, and groups originated from Kosovo and Macedonia. The major topics it offered were celebrities, beauty tips, astrology, or similar lifestyle content.

Additionally, a smart part of pages pretending as political groups in the US, the UK, and Australia posted a great number of contents from religion to politics. The network of Kosovo and Macedonia paid $5,800 for advertisements from 2013 to March 2019.