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DEFacebook announced the removal of three groups of interconnected accounts that violated the social network’s ban on foreign interference.
The company’s press service informed, that “these networks had been of Russian origin.”
One notes that two account groups had connections with Russia’s intelligence services. One of them included 23 profiles and six pages, as well as eight Instagram accounts. They posted information mainly in Russian and English about “elections and protests in Belarus, Russian and Ukrainian politics, geopolitical conspiracy theories, relations between Russia and NATO,” and so on. These accounts spent about 10,000 dollars for advertising on social networks.
The fake accounts’ administrators pretended to be locals and redirected visitors to their sites.
Another network of profiles, which is associated with Russian secret services by social network specialists, contained 214 accounts, 35 pages and 18 groups, as well as 34 Instagram profiles. These fake accounts focused on events in Syria and Ukraine, as well as partially in Turkey, Japan, Armenia, Georgia and Belarus. The authors pretended to be local journalists in these countries, wrote in English, Ukrainian, Russian and Arabic, and redirected people to their sites.
According to Facebook, the third group is associated with the “Internet Research Agency,” which is better known as the Russian “troll factory.” It included five Facebook profiles and one group, as well as three Instagram accounts. This network focused on Turkey, Europe and the United States. The accounts were written in Turkish and English and presented themselves as an “independent Turkish organisation” platform. The group spent about $ 4,800 on promoting their posts.
To recap, Twitter and Facebook have recently announced the destruction of the accounts and pages network that was a part of Russia’s operation to influence the US election.
Bohdan Marusyak
