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Americans take a page from the game book of Russia.
Facebook's malicious users are creating hundreds of fake accounts and profiles to try to politically influence users, Facebook said in a blog on Thursday.
The social networking company of Silicon Valley has announced a crackdown on accounts, removing 559 pages and 251 accounts "that have consistently violated our anti-spam rules and coordinated unauthorized behavior." Facebook has not cited the source of these accounts, but the New York Times reports that they were run by Americans.
"Many were using fake accounts or multiple accounts with the same name and had posted a huge amount of content on a network of groups and pages to drive traffic to their websites," said Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity at Facebook. .
"Many have used the same techniques to make their content appear more popular than on Facebook." Others were advertising farms using Facebook to mislead people into believing that they were forums for political debate. legitimate."
According to the New York Times, the deleted accounts included Right Wing News – a page that sometimes spreads false information with a right-wing orientation – as well as the Resistance and Reverb Press.
The activity echoes Russia's actions in the 2016 US elections, when it attempted to influence US policy with the help of a coordinated false count campaign. spreading hoaxes and misleading information.
Facebook said it reviewed the behavior of the accounts, rather than the published content, in its decision to ban them.
"Today, these networks are using more and more sensational political content, regardless of their political orientation, to create an audience and drive traffic to their websites, which allows them to earn more money." Money for all visitors to the site The news or opinions of these accounts and pages are often indistinguishable from legitimate political debate, "wrote Gleicher. "That's why it's so important to watch these actors behavior – for example if they use fake accounts or repeatedly publish spam – rather than contents to decide which of these accounts, pages or groups to delete. "
A Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request to clarify the sources of the accounts and the details of the accounts themselves.
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