FB closes 36 accounts over US poll interference

FACEBOOK on Tuesday said it shut down more accounts aimed at influencing the US midterm election and that it is exploring a possible link to Russia.

“As we’ve continued to investigate, we detected and removed some additional Facebook and Instagram accounts,” head of cyber security policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in an update posted at the social network.

While stressing the challenge of identifying the culprits, he noted that a website claiming to be associated with the Internet Research Agency, a Russiabased troll farm, published a list of Instagram accounts they said that they had created.

Facebook had already shut down most of those accounts, and blocked the rest after an internal investigation, according to Gleicher.

On the eve of the midterm election, Facebook announced it blocked some 30 accounts on its platform and 85 more on Instagram after police warned they may be linked to “foreign entities” trying to interfere.

On Tuesday, the number of accounts removed for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” was raised to 36 at Facebook and 99 at the social network’s Instagram service.

Major online social platforms have been under intense pressure to avoid being used by “bad actors” to sway outcomes by publishing misinformation and enraging voters.