Facebook has taken down 78 Russian-based accounts and pages spreading misinformation in Ukraine and neighboring countries on behalf of their government.
The company reported on Feb.12 that three unconnected networks of accounts originating from Russia, Iran, Vietnam and Myanmar were removed for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and “foreign or government interference.”
According to the report, 11 pages, 29 groups and four Instagram accounts focused primarily on Ukraine were suspended for violating the company policies in addition to the 78 Facebook accounts.
“Although the people behind this network attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to Russian military intelligence services,” Facebook said in a statement.
As the research indicates, the accounts were removed for misrepresentation rather than the nature of the content posted.
The individuals behind this activity shared policy-related content in Russian, English and Ukrainian, representing themselves as locals or citizen journalists.
Using fake pages, they also tried to contact Ukrainian public figures to spread false information and stir political discord over ethnic tensions in Russian-annexed Crimea, the downing of the Malaysian airliner in Ukraine in 2014 and Russian military engagement in Syria.
Social media analytics firm Graphika, which reviewed the accounts before they were shuttered by Facebook, said that their activity dated back to 2016 and 2017, although some were active this year.
Facebook posted examples of content from these pages.
Beyond the pages linked to Russia, Facebook also removed Iran-based accounts targeting the US as well as Myanmar and Vietnam-originated pages focusing on Myanmar.
Facebook’s anti-misinformation policy has come under scrutiny after it became evident that Russia used the social network to sway the 2016 presidential election in the U.S.
Since 2016, Facebook has regularly shut down disinformation campaigns from countries including Russia.
The company’s reports connect Russian propaganda efforts to the government-owned Russian news agency Sputnik, a “troll farm” Internet Research Agency and, according to the recent evidence, Russia’s military intelligence service.
