Facebook removes almost a hundred accounts for politicization of Ukraine elections

Facebook has removed 120 accounts and pages for politicizing processes in Ukraine during the presidential and early parliamentary elections in 2019, the company has said in its blog.

"We also removed 72 Facebook accounts, 35 Pages, and 13 Instagram accounts that were involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior in Ukraine. This network focused on domestic audiences," the company said.

According to the report, a network of fake accounts was linked to Postmen DA, an advertising agency in Ukraine. The network was particularly active during the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

According to Facebook, the Page admins and account owners posted political memes, satire and other content including about Crimea, NATO, economic policies in Ukraine, domestic politics, elections, criticism and support of various candidates, including Volodymyr Zelensky, Yulia Tymoshenko, and Petro Poroshenko.

In total, the people who managed these pages spent about $1.93 million primarily in U.S. dollars for ads on Facebook and Instagram.

op