New York Times newspaper gave report Tuesday, July 31, that the online social media company Facebook has discovered & purged fake Facebook accounts that were apparently structured to influence the looming 2018 midterm U.S. congressional elections.
Facebook reports that it first discovered the fake accounts, including 8 Facebook pages,17 profiles and 7 Instagram accounts, about two weeks ago.
EARLY STAGES
A press release by the company states; “We’re still in the very early stages of our investigation and we don’t have all the facts, including who may be behind this,but we’re sharing what we know today, given the connection between these fake accounts and protests that are planned in Washington next week.”
The social media giant revealed Tuesday that it had purged a total of 32 accounts & pages from both Facebook and Instagram for exhibiting “coordinated, inauthentic behavior.”
RUSSIAN TROLLS
So far, Facebook has been unable to connect the dots behind these accounts and any direct ties to Russia or any other foreign power but Facebook hasn’t ruled out a foreign origin to the spurious accounts.
Investigators have “found evidence of some connections between these accounts” and similar accounts established by Russian internet troll-farm ‘Internet Research Agency’, an entity indicted by US special counsel Robert Mueller of charges related to conspiracy to defraud the United States.
SOCIAL DISCORD
The fake, online manipulations are very similar to those used in 2016 to attempt swaying the United State’s presidential elections; with fake accounts trying to stir social unrest & discord.
The Facebook press statement also reveals that almost 300,000 Facebook users followed the suspicious pages since stripped from Facebook.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote publicly that “security isn’t a problem that you ever completely solve,” noting that the company is engaged in a war with bad people trying to misuse the platform.
Stock price @ post: Facebook, Inc. up 1.52%; close @ $172.58 USD – NOK 1408.43
© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today
