Facebook removes over 160 Ukrainian accounts for spreading fakes
"We also removed 168 accounts, 149 Facebook Pages and 79 Groups for engaging in domestic-focused coordinated inauthentic behavior in Ukraine," the company said in a statement on Tuesday, September 17.
Less than 4.2 million accounts followed one or more of these Pages and about 401,000 accounts joined at least one of these Groups. Among the deleted pages were the accounts of news sites Znj.ua, Politeka, Hyser.
According to the report, the people behind this activity used fake accounts to manage Groups and a number of Pages — some of which changed their names over time, and also to increase engagement, disseminate content and drive people to off-platform sites posing as news outlets.
The Page admins and account owners typically posted about celebrities, show business, sports, local and international news, political and economic issues including Ukrainian elections, political candidates and criticism of various public figures.
"Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review linked this activity to Pragmatico, a Ukrainian PR firm," the company said.
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