‘Bad actor’ accounts
Facebook uncovers political influence campaign ahead of November midterm US elections.
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook says it has shut down 32 fake pages and accounts involved in a “coordinated” effort to stoke hot button issues ahead of the November midterm US elections but could not identify the source, although Russia is suspected of involvement.
It said on Tuesday that the “bad actor” accounts on the world’s biggest social network and its photosharing site Instagram could not be tied directly to Russian actors, whom American officials say used the platform to spread disinformation ahead of the 2016 US presidential election.
The US intelligence community has concluded that Russia sought to sway the vote in Donald Trump’s favour and Facebook was a primary tool in that effort, using targeted ads to escalate political tensions and push divisive online content.
With the 2018 mid-terms barely three months away, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced his company’s crackdown.
“One of my top priorities for 2018 is to prevent misuse of Facebook,” he said on his own Facebook page.
“We build services to bring people closer together and I want to ensure we’re doing everything we can to prevent anyone from misusing them to drive us apart.”
Trump, who is now president, has repeatedly downplayed Kremlin efforts to interfere in US democracy.
Two weeks ago, he caused a firestorm when he stood alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and cast doubt on claims that Russia tried to sabotage the vote.
But after Facebook’s announcement, the White House stressed that Trump opposed all efforts at election interference.
“The president has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference into our electoral process from any nation state or other malicious actors,” deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said.
Facebook said “some of the activity is consistent” with that of the Saint Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) – the Russian troll farm that managed many false Facebook accounts used to influence the 2016 vote.
“But we don’t believe the evidence is strong enough at this time to make public attribution to the IRA,” Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamps said.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is heading a sprawling investigation into possible collusion with Russia by Trump’s campaign to tip the vote toward the real estate tycoon.
Mueller has indicted the Russian group and 12 Russian hackers connected to the organisation.
Facebook said it was shutting down 32 pages and accounts “engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour”, even though it may never be known for certain who was behind the operation.
Its investigation is at an early stage, but was revealed as one of the pages being covertly operated was orchestrating a counter-protest to a white nationalism rally in Washington.
The coordinators of a deadly white supremacist event in Char- lottesville last year were reportedly given a permit to hold a rally near the White House on Aug 12, the anniversary of the 2017 gathering.
Facebook said it would notify members of the social network who expressed interest in attending the counter-protest.
It has briefed US law enforcement agencies, Congress and other tech companies about its findings.
“Today’s disclosure is further evidence that the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division and spread disinformation.
“I’m glad Facebook is taking steps to pinpoint and address this activity,” said the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat Mark Warner.