Facebook Removes Accounts amid Fears that Russia might Interfere in US Midterms

Facebook detected “coordinated inauthentic behavior” ahead of the US mid-term elections that could be linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian-based group with ties to the Kremlin.
The social network removed 32 pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram on Thursday that were pushing American political positions and organizing events, including a protest against a Unite the Right rally that will take place in Washington next week.
“It’s clear whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their identities than the Internet Research Agency did in the run up to the 2016 presidential election,” said Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, in a call with reporters.
In October 2017, the social network acknowledged that Russia-backed content reached as many as 126 million Americans during the presidential elections of 2016. Those accounts sometimes used Russian IP addresses and paid for advertising in rubles .
The people’s accounts removed yesterday (Tuesday), which had a total of 290,000 followers, used virtual private networks (VPNs) to hide their locations and internet phone services to hide their identities. They paid third parties approximately $11,000 (in US and Canadian dollars) for about 150 ads on Facebook and Instagram.
“At this point we don’t have enough technical evidence to state definitively who is behind this, but they have shown similar activity and have connected with known IRA accounts,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy.
Lukasz Olejnik, the cybersecurity researcher said: “Artificially inducing civil unrests or protests via internet platforms is a worrying development, and incorporation of Instagram is quite novel.”
“This development touching Washington indicates that concerns about European parliament 2019 elections might now be viewed in rather intriguing light,”he added.
> Shiuly Rina