Facebook suspends fake Russian accounts, warns of US election hack-and-leak threat
The company said the accounts, which it suspended for using fake identities and other types of coordinated inauthentic behaviour, were linked to Russian intelligence and people associated with a St.
Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations of election meddling and says it does not interfere in the domestic politics of other countries.
Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebooks head of cybersecurity policy, said there was no immediate evidence that hacked documents were about to be leaked, but by suspending the accounts Facebook hoped to prevent them being used in any subsequent operation.
Facebook said the networks were small with only a handful of accounts on its website and photo-sharing service Instagram, and a combined total of around 97,000 followers.
Twitter TWTR.N said it had worked with Facebook to identify and remove 350 accounts that were operated by state-linked organisations in Russia.
Both companies said one of the networks had been identified following a tip from the FBI, which warned on Tuesday that foreign actors and cybercriminals were likely to spread disinformation about the results of Novembers election.
The warnings follow an alert by Microsoft earlier this month that hackers linked to Russia, China, and Iran are trying to spy on people tied to both U.S.
Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab, worked with Facebook to analyse the suspended accounts.
He said the activity showed Russia was continuing efforts to exacerbate political tensions in the United States and elsewhere.
That doesnt dismiss the fact that the scale and scope of domestic disinformation is far greater than what any foreign adversary could do, he said.
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