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Facebook has unveiled its new Election War Room, which is designed to help employees find and remove false information and false accounts intended to block elections. (October 18)
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Adrianne Vega, a proud voter, takes a photo of her mobile phone receipt on her mobile phone after voting for the St. Agnus primary election at Manz Hall Bishop in Chicago on Tuesday, March 15, 2016. Vega took the photo for the post on his Instagram account.(Photo: Antonio Perez, AP)

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook revealed on Tuesday more details about fake Russia-related Instagram accounts, which contained controversial information about race, sex and public figures such as President Donald Trump and Kanye West for the purpose. influence voters in the mid-term elections.

More than a million people – 600,000 in the United States – have followed at least one of the 99 Instagram accounts until the eve of mid-term elections in the United States, when the social media giant, acting according to the information of the FBI, dismantled them.

The accounts are believed to have been the work of the Russian Internet Research Agency, the group that attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election by broadcasting political messages. conflictual.

A website supposed to present Internet Research Agency claimed responsibility for the effort made last week, but Facebook has failed to impute the activity to the Kremlin-related group.

"This effort may have been linked to the IRA, but we are not in the best position to definitively say if this is the case," the company wrote. blog post. "As many independent experts have pointed out, trolls are encouraged to assert that their activities are larger and more influential than might be the case, and that seems to be true here as well."

In total, the social media giant announced that it had removed 36 Facebook accounts, six Facebook pages and nearly 99 Instagram accounts coordinated to broadcast messages covering the entire political spectrum before the elections.

Some reports have focused on celebrities, a likely effort to create an audience that mixes with polarizing and political messages. The accounts have also paid particular attention to issues of race and gender, including current issues such as violence against African Americans and transgender rights, calling on liberals and conservatives, sometimes with messages intended to offend people, such as the one that equates Christianity with child abuse, the Atlantic Council's forensic digital research laboratory found.

Talks between the two parties, such as feminism, gun control, abortion or Nike's campaign with Colin Kaepernick, were another common tactic used by the accounts to deepen political differences.

Facebook said it was alerted by FBI accounts on November 4 and removed them on November 5. The accounts were recent, most created after mid-2017.

About 65,000 people, including 60 in the United States, have followed at least one of Facebook's pages, mainly containing articles in French. The pages bought for 4,500 € ads. None of the ads have been broadcast in the United States. Instagram accounts did not buy any ads.

More: The Russian Internet Search Agency is perhaps at the root of Facebook's election interference

More: Facebook reveals possible electoral interference of Russia and foreign actors on the eve of the mid-term

More: Facebook unveils Iran's misinformation to sow political discord over Trump and his race

The pace of revelations underscores the difficult task of protecting elections from foreign interference on social media.

After strong criticism from lawmakers for failing to detect and eliminate electoral interference in 2016, Facebook has made election protection around the world one of its top priorities.

He has set up a "war room" for elections on his campus in Menlo Park, California, where scientists, engineers and other staff are monitoring foreign electoral manipulations, misinformation, voter suppression and other security problems under a big American flag. It has also hired more people and strengthened automated systems to monitor what is posted on Facebook, and introduces stricter controls to determine who can buy political ads.

In August, Facebook said it foiled Iranian and Iranian political influence campaigns targeting US users before the mid-term elections. The campaigns, which mimicked the Kremlin's earlier efforts to stir up political discord, also targeted users in the UK, the Middle East and Latin America to influence global politics.

Facebook announced last month that it had unveiled another secret Iranian disinformation campaign aimed at sowing political discord before mid-November.

Iran and Russia have denied any involvement in Facebook's misinformation campaigns.

More: Facebook and Twitter are moving away from midterm misinformation on polling day

More: Who paid for this political ad in your Facebook feed? It's not always easy to understand

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