TelecomTV TelecomTV
  • News
  • Videos
  • Channels
  • Events
  • Directory
  • Smart Studio
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • DSP Leaders World Forum
  • DSP Summits
  • Great Telco Debate
    • |
    • Follow
    • |
    • Subscribe
  • |
  • More
  • Webcasts
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • Great Telco Debate
  • |
  • Follow TelecomTV
  • |
    • Subscribe
    • |
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Help
  • Contact
  • Follow TelecomTV
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Help
  • Contact
  • Sign In Register Subscribe
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In
    • Register
  • Search

Policy & Regulation

TelecomTV TRACKER

Sourced by TelecomTV's TRACKER platform
from Facebook

Policy & Regulation

Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior From Russia

Via Facebook

Mar 12, 2020

Today, we removed 49 Facebook accounts, 69 Pages and 85 Instagram accounts for engaging in foreign interference — which is coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign actor — on Facebook, Instagram and other internet platforms. This network was in the early stages of building an audience and was operated by local nationals — some wittingly and some unwittingly — in Ghana and Nigeria on behalf of individuals in Russia. It targeted primarily the United States.

The people behind this network engaged in a number of deceptive tactics, including the use of fake accounts — some of which had already been disabled by our automated systems — to manage Pages posing as non-government organizations or personal blogs, and post in Groups. They frequently posted about US news and attempted to grow their audience by focusing on topics like black history, black excellence and fashion, celebrity gossip, news and events related to famous Americans like historical figures and celebrities, and LGBTQ issues. This activity did not appear to focus on elections, or promote or denigrate political candidates. They also shared content about oppression and injustice, including police brutality. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their purpose and coordination, our investigation found links to EBLA, an NGO in Ghana, and individuals associated with past activity by the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA).

We detected this network as a result of our internal investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior ahead of US elections. The network was linked to the activity we had previously removed and attributed to the IRA in April 2018, July 2018 and November 2018. Our assessment benefited from our subsequent collaboration with a team of journalists at CNN. We’ve shared information with our industry peers, policy makers and law enforcement and will continue working with others to find and remove this kind of behavior from our platform.

Presence on Facebook and Instagram: 49 Facebook accounts, 69 Pages and 85 accounts on Instagram. Followers: About 13,500 accounts followed one or more of these Pages and around 265,000 people followed one or more of these Instagram accounts (about 65% of which were in the US). Advertising: Less than $5 was spent on ads focused on people in the US, none of which were political or issue ads. Our systems repeatedly rejected attempts by this network to run issue or political ads in the US because the people behind it were not authorized to run political ads in the US. In total, we identified approximately $379 in spending for ads on Facebook and Instagram paid for in US dollars, the majority of which were run before this operation began by people who wittingly or unwittingly joined this network in the second half of 2019. We’re constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people. We’re taking down these Pages and accounts because this activity was linked to individuals associated with the IRA, an entity we had previously banned from Facebook, they also used fake accounts and coordinated with one another and to mislead people about what they were doing. That behavior was the basis for our action, not the content they posted.

In addition to announcing this enforcement action today, it will also be included in our monthly CIB report for March 2020.

We are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we’ve said before, it’s an ongoing challenge. We’re committed to continually improving to stay ahead. That means building better technology, hiring more people and working more closely with law enforcement, security experts and other companies.

Below is a sample of the content posted by some of these Pages.

We want to hear from you

Take part in our 5G and Security survey and receive a free copy of the downloadable report ahead of general release

Related Topics
  • Facebook,
  • Global,
  • Tracker

More Like This

Policy & Regulation

US Supreme Court Justice calls for Amazon, Facebook and Google to be regulated like telcos

Apr 7, 2021

Digital Platforms & Services

Commercial Vehicle Video Telematics Solution Revenues Set to Exceed US$8 Billion by 2026

Apr 7, 2021

3GPP

New Services in SAP HANA Cloud Lower TCO for Customers in Data-Intensive, Highly Regulated Industries

Apr 7, 2021

Digital Platforms & Services

What Covid did: accelerated digital healthcare

Apr 6, 2021

Access Evolution

Biden's "New Deal" to provide high-speed broadband to every US citizen by 2029

Apr 1, 2021

This content extract was originally sourced from an external website (Facebook) and is the copyright of the external website owner. TelecomTV is not responsible for the content of external websites. Legal Notices

Email Newsletters

Stay up to date with the latest industry developments: sign up to receive TelecomTV's top news and videos plus exclusive subscriber-only content direct to your inbox – including our daily news briefing and weekly wrap.

Subscribe

Top Picks

Highlights of our content from across TelecomTV today

DSP Leaders World Forum 2021 Delegate Report

0:50

DSP Leaders Open Telco Summit

23:25

Extra Shot: Next Steps for DSPs

11:17

How cloud dynamics are reshaping the telecoms sector

  • TelecomTV
  • Decisive Media

TelecomTV is produced by the team at Decisive Media

Menu
  • News
  • Videos
  • Channels
  • Directory
  • Smart Studio
 
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • Events
  • About Us
Our Brands
  • TelecomTV Tracker
  • TelecomTV Perspectives
  • DSP Summits
  • DSP Leaders World Forum
  • The Great Telco Debate
Get In Touch
info@telecomtv.com
+44 (0) 207 448 1070

Request a Media Pack

Follow
  • © Decisive Media Limited 2021. All rights reserved. All brands and products are the trademarks of their respective holder(s).
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Legal Notices