Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ:FB) has been struggling with the management of fake news and misinformation on its platform. The fake news is associated with accounts reportedly not authenticated. However, the California-based social media giant seems to be gaining a breakthrough with its battle. The company claims to have closed over 500 pages a majority of them originating from Russia.
According to Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, most of the closed accounts engaged in fake behavior on Facebook. Their links led to two separate but very active operations involving a variety of former Soviet republics and Ukraine. Close to 364 pages of these accounts operated in Central and Eastern European countries. They also had operations in Baltics and Central Asia.
Some of these accounts had a consistent way of posting
“We didn’t find any links between these operations, but they used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing,” Gleicher said.
However, Facebook did discover that some of these pages had consistent topics in their posting. They included anti-NATO sentiment, protest movements, and anti-corruption. The account holders were well coordinated and this gave them an added advantage of misrepresenting themselves.
Facebook came under fire during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Reports have it that Russian operatives used Facebook to lure people into the wrong into believing the wrong things. However, the incidence acted as a wakeup call for the social media giant.
Gleicher says the company’s security efforts will help them stay a step ahead
The operation resulted from a tip by Facebook received from the U.S. law enforcement and immediately swung into action. According to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) activity, they were able to identify a technical overlap similar to the one experienced prior to the US midterm elections. Sputnik, a Moscow news company, is one of the victims feeling the effect of the closure of accounts. However, the company claims that the action is purely political.
Meanwhile, Gleicher has expressed the company’s commitment to uncovering any form of abuse; thanks to its ongoing security efforts. The company acknowledges the importance of the political moments in Europe.