Facebook takes down fake account network used to spread hate in UK

Facebook has removed a network of more than 100 accounts and pages for coordinated inauthentic behaviour on its social networks the first time it has done so for UK-based operations seeking to influence British citizens.

The operation was spread over Facebook and Instagram and used a network of fake accounts to pose as both far-right activists and their opponents.

It ran pages and groups whose names frequently changed in order to drum up more followers and operated fake accounts to engage in hate speech and spread divisive comments on both sides of UK political debate, Facebook says.

In each of these cases, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action.

That means building better technology, hiring more people and working more closely with law enforcement, security experts and other companies.

According to Ben Nimmo of the Atlantic Council, an independent digital forensic research lab, the operation was apparently intended to counter far-right representations of Muslims, LGBT communities and minorities in the UK.

The pages shared content from mainstream news sources, such as the BBC and the New York Times, but also shared original content, even including administrators actively engaging in debate with users.

The removals come the day after Facebooks chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, published a lengthy memo about the company becoming a privacy focused social network, by emphasising direct messaging and end-to-end encryption above public sharing.

Zuckerberg had written that the move to a newly privacy-focused social network would create safety and spam vulnerabilities in an encrypted system to let people send messages from unknown apps where our safety and security systems couldnt see the patterns of activity.

Original article
Author: The Guardian

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