Facebook removes multiple accounts from Russia that spread fake news about Ukraine

07.05.2019 10:08

Ukrinform

The social media company Facebook has deleted multiple pages, groups and accounts that originated in Russia and that were used to spread misleading information, in particular, about Ukraine.

The relevant statement has been posted on the company’s website.

“We removed 97 Facebook accounts, Pages and Groups that were involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior as part of a network emanating from Russia that focused on Ukraine,” reads the report.

It is noted that the individuals behind this activity used fake accounts to run Pages and Groups, “disseminate their content, and increase engagement, and also to drive people to an off-platform domain that aggregated various web content.”

Fake accounts were used mostly to post local and political news including topics like the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine, Russian politics, political news in Europe, politics in Ukraine and the Syrian civil war.

“We also removed 21 Facebook accounts, Pages and Instagram accounts that were involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior as part of a small network emanating from Russia that focused on Austria, the Baltics, Germany, Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom,” reads the report.

These accounts were used to post content about local politics including topics like immigration, religious issues and NATO.