January 17, 2018 – In Breaking News – The New York Times
Facebook said on Thursday that it had identified two disinformation campaigns originating from Russia — including one tied to an agency controlled by the Kremlin — that were targeted at users in Europe and Central Asia.
The company said it deleted nearly 500 pages and accounts that had posted the misleading messages.
Facebook said one of the efforts misrepresented itself using independent news pages on topics like weather, travel and sports.
(According to Business Insider Facebook removed more than 500 pages, accounts, and ads across its core service and Instagram that were connected to Russia and involved in “inauthentic” behavior. Courtesy of Wochit Business and YouTube. Posted on Jan 17, 2019.)
The pages were discovered to be linked to employees at Sputnik, an agency controlled by the Russian government that was established to spread news and information sympathetic to Russia.
Facebook has been under pressure to more aggressively counter the spread of misinformation and manipulation of the social network that is aimed at stirring division and discord.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive officer, has said the company has made the detection of suspicious activity a top priority, but, on a sprawling platform of 2 billion users, disinformation campaigns can be hard to detect.
“We are constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people,” Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, said in a blog post.
(Watch Facebook executive Nathaniel Gleicher’s candid, full interview on Facebook and its impact on privacy and democracy in the U.S. and around the world – part of FRONTLINE’s media transparency project for our investigation, “The Facebook Dilemma.” Courtesy of FRONTLINE PBS and YouTube. Posted on Dec 4, 2018.)
Continue reading… Facebook Identifies Russia-Linked Misinformation Campaign
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