Facebook closes hundreds of accounts and pages for campaign manipulation
Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts, pages and groups from countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Indonesia for using fake identities.
Three independently operating campaigns had created networks via fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram to deceive others about their true identity and goals, Facebook announced on Thursday. Among other things, critical content about countries such as Qatar, Iran and Turkey was disseminated and the independence movement in the Indonesian province of West Papua was promoted.
According to the company, a total of 443 Facebook and 125 Instagram accounts as well as 200 pages and 76 groups from the United Arab States, Egypt, Nigeria and Indonesia were affected.
However, Facebook manager Nathaniel Gleicher also made it clear in the statement that the deletion of the pages, accounts and groups was due to the action taken and not because of the content. "We are working tirelessly to uncover and stop this type of activity. We do not want our services to be used to manipulate people," he wrote.
More than seven million users followed one or more of these pages, the report continued. Around 3,000 users joined at least one of the groups. And around 193,000 people followed one or more Instagram accounts.
According to the report, one of the campaigns originated in the United Arab States, Egypt and Nigeria. It mainly promoted content from the Emirates and spread criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, Qatar and Turkey. (SDA)
