Facebook blocks suspicious accounts just before the US elections

On the eve of US congressional elections, Facebook blocked accounts showing "suspicious behavior". This concerns thirty accounts on Facebook and another 85 on Instagram.

What exactly happened on these accounts is still unclear and is currently the subject of an investigation. Facebook is currently passionate about trolling; These are mainly fake accounts that aim to stir up trouble.

The platform reports that there are accounts associated with French and Russian pages on Facebook. Most suspicious Instagram accounts were in English. Part of the accounts concerned known people, another part of the political debate.

Police Council

The police informed the social network of the activities taking place on these accounts. It is suspected that these activities are related to foreign parties.

"Normally, we would do other research before going out," writes the social network in a blog post. "But as we are only one day in the big US elections, we wanted to inform people of what we had done and tell what we knew."

Facebook does not provide more details. "As soon as we know more – for example if these accounts can be connected to the Russian Internet Research Agency or to another foreign power – we will update these messages," as you can read.

Warning FBI

Almost simultaneously with Facebook's report sent the FBI a press release that warns foreign parties wishing to influence the elections. This is what they explicitly call Russia.

"They can do this by propagating the disturbances with false information. […] Americans can protect themselves from this by informing themselves, reporting suspicious activity and being informed consumers", writes the service d & # 39; investigation. In October, the US judicial system sued a Russian suspected of influencing congressional elections.

In recent months, Facebook – as well as Twitter – has removed groups of accounts and pages displaying suspicious behavior on various occasions. When the platform withdrew a "coordinated campaign" in late July, it was said that it was more difficult to attribute activities to the Russian troll factory in St. Petersburg, which was so active in 2016, because the trolls are now better protected.