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Facebook removes three disinformation networks

2020-09-02T08:39:22.007Z


Before the US presidential election, networks appear to be trying to influence public opinion with misinformation. The decisive hint to Facebook came from the FBI: Russia is said to be involved again.


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Shadowy figures in front of a Facebook logo

Photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

In a "report on inauthentic behavior", Facebook announced on Wednesday that it had stopped three networks in August that had used its service to spread manipulative false information.

The most extensive of these therefore worked from Pakistan to influence public opinion there and in India.

A total of 453 accounts, 103 pages, 78 groups and 107 Instagram accounts, which are attributed to the network, have been removed.

In the USA, a network was dug up with 55 Facebook accounts, 42 pages and 36 Instagram accounts aimed at users in Venezuela, Mexico and Bolivia.

Most of the attention, however, is caused by the smashing of a relatively new disinformation network that was operated from Russia and, among other things, was supposed to spread propaganda in the USA and Great Britain with the help of unsuspecting freelance journalists.

The decisive clue about this network had come from the FBI, Facebook announced on Tuesday.

One of the actors' goals was to draw the attention of Facebook users to a website called "Peacedata", which is used to spread false information in a targeted manner.

Fake photos by fake editors

Between February and August 2020, the actors published more than 500 articles in English and more than 200 in Arabic, said the analysis company Graphika (PDF), with which Facebook had previously shared data over the network.

With only 13 Facebook accounts and two pages, the group was still manageable.

The target group of the campaign were mainly left-wing Facebook users.

Topics of the articles, to which the fake accounts had pointed, were among other things the interference of the USA in other countries, corruption and the dark side of capitalism.

According to Graphika, invented people were presented as the editorial heads behind the articles.

The faces in their profile photos were most likely generated with the help of artificial intelligence.

Facebook connects the network with the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA).

According to the findings of US secret services and online companies, this played a central role in attempts to deepen the social division in the USA before the 2016 presidential election.

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mak / dpa

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2020-09-02

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