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Facebook has spotted new attempts at political manipulation of its platform in the run-up to the November US legislative elections, refraining from identifying the perpetrators while letting the eyes turn to Russia.
The first network World Socialist Party was violently criticized last year for serving as a platform for misinformation for political manipulation during the 2016 US presidential election, political interference attributed to Russia by the US intelligence services. [19659003] The special prosecutor Robert Mueller, in charge of investigating the suspicions of Russian interference in this presidential campaign, had precisely targeted a few months ago many Facebook accounts and pages managed by the "Internet Research Agency" (IRA) , suspected of being a digital arm of the Kremlin, which the latter has always denied vigorously.
"We are still s investigating but anyone who created this network of (fake) accounts has taken great care to hide the true identities and therefore we still do not know for sure who is responsible. That said, part of this activity is similar to what the Internet Research Agency did "before and after the 2016 election," group boss Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
"We are doing in the face of very sophisticated and well-financed opponents, especially nation-states, who constantly evolve and try new attacks, "he continued.
Stoking tensions
The The network also explained that it found "links" between deleted accounts "and IRA accounts deactivated last year."
"President (Donald Trump) made it clear that his administration would not tolerate "Foreign interference in our electoral process from any nation or other malicious actors," Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday evening.
Facebook announced have this 32 pages and suspicious accounts (most of them on Facebook but some on Instagram owned by the group), which he said were part of a "coordinated action."
As in 2016, these accounts broadcast messages on controversial topics that could divide American society – like racial tensions – and even paid to spread them more widely on the network through the purchase of advertising space ("ads"), for a total of $ 11,000, according to the group
Facebook has cited examples, including a call for a political demonstration in Washington next weekend.
This new campaign has used much more sophisticated means to cover its tracks and circumvent the measures of control taken by Facebook in recent months, intended to identify and stop manipulation. Accounts and pages in particular have avoided using Russian IP addresses (the IP address is used to locate the origin of an Internet connection).
Repeating several times that it did not return to Facebook of attributing these manipulative attempts "to a specific organization or to a country," Facebook's security chief Alex Stamos said it was "up to the security forces to make the decision" to attribute these attempts to a entity or a country.
Predictable
The group reported having informed law enforcement and parliamentarians of its discoveries.
The social network had already said it expected to new attempts to manipulate via its platform in the run-up to mid-term elections in the United States this fall. US intelligence chief Dan Coats has warned several times that Russia will resume revenues in 2016 to try to influence the polls in November.
Welcoming measures taken by Facebook, Democratic Senator Mark Warner is not deprived of accusing Russia.
"I expect (…) that Facebook, as well as other platforms, continue to identify the activity of the + troll + Russian and to work with the Congress to improve our laws to better protect our democracy in the future, "he said on Twitter.
For Adam Schiff, Democratic Representative in the House," malicious actors abroad use exactly the same even (technical) than in 2016: we divide politically and ideologically. "
Facebook had detected and suppressed in 2017 many pages and accounts dubious managed from Russia and used to fuel the tensions of American society. 003] In total, more than 290,000 accounts followed at least one of the incriminated pages. The most followed were "Aztlan Warriors" (dedicated to historical figures like the Indian chief Geronimo), "Black Elevation", "Mindful Being" or "Resisters", which evoked, in particular, the question of gender stereotypes.
According to a New York Times article, relayed to Facebook's Twitter account, company officials said in congressional meetings that "Russia could be involved" in this new case.
At the beginning of the year, US justice indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities for interference in the US elections and political process. Twelve Russian intelligence agents were also indicted in the United States in mid-July for interference in the 2016 presidential election.
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