Facebook removes multiple fake Pages, Groups, accounts

Facebook on Thursday said it removed multiple Pages, Groups and accounts that were involved in coordinated inauthentic behaviour on its platform and Instagram and originated in Thailand, Russia, Ukraine and Honduras.

It removed 12 Facebook accounts and 10 Pages for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour that originated in Thailand and focused primarily on Thailand and the US.

“Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review found that some of this activity was linked to an individual based in Thailand associated with New Eastern Outlook, a Russian government-funded journal based in Moscow,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook said in a blog post.

“We didn’t find any links between the campaigns we’ve removed, but all created networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing,” he added.

Ahead of the election in Ukraine, Facebook removed 18 Facebook accounts, nine Pages and three Groups for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour that originated primarily in Russia and focused on Ukraine.

“Also, ahead of the election in Ukraine, we removed 83 Facebook accounts, two Pages, 29 Groups, and five Instagram accounts engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour that originated in Russia and the Luhansk region in Ukraine and focused on Ukraine,” said Facebook.

Finally, said Facebook, it removed 181 accounts and 1,488 Facebook Pages that were involved in domestic-focused inauthentic activity in Honduras.