In a post on Facebook today, founder Mark Zuckerberg says the company has found and is taking down more than 270 pages and accounts run by the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency, the troll factory Special Counsel Robert Mueller has indicted for 2016 election interference.
Most of our actions against the IRA to date have been to prevent them from interfering in foreign elections. This update is about taking down their pages targeting people living in Russia. This Russian agency has repeatedly acted deceptively and tried to manipulate people in the US, Europe, and Russia -- and we don't want them on Facebook anywhere in the world.
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This particular set of pages and accounts was used to target people in Russia and people speaking Russian in neighboring countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. In this case, some of the pages we removed belong to Russian news organizations that we determined were controlled by the IRA. About one million people followed at least one of their Facebook pages and about 500,000 followed at least one of their Instagram accounts. In the next few weeks, we'll release a tool so you can check if you liked or followed an IRA-controlled account.
Security isn't a problem you ever fully solve. Organizations like the IRA are sophisticated adversaries who are constantly evolving, but we'll keep improving our techniques to stay ahead -- especially when it comes to protecting the integrity of elections.
Zuckerberg writes that Facebook now employees 15,000 people doing security and content review and will get up to 20,000 by the end of the year.
Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos has posted more information on the Facebook Newsroom page, which also includes images of some of the now deleted pages and ads.
This morning we removed 70 Facebook and 65 Instagram accounts — as well as 138 Facebook Pages — that were controlled by the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA). Many of the Pages also ran ads, all of which have been removed. Of the Pages that had content, the vast majority of them (95%) were in Russian — targeted either at people living in Russia or Russian-speakers around the world including from neighboring countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
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The IRA has repeatedly used complex networks of inauthentic accounts to deceive and manipulate people who use Facebook, including before, during and after the 2016 US presidential elections. It’s why we don’t want them on Facebook. We removed this latest set of Pages and accounts solely because they were controlled by the IRA — not based on the content. This included commentary on domestic and international political issues, the promotion of Russian culture and tourism as well as debate on more everyday issues.
The pages spent $167,000 on ads since January 1, 2015 and targeted Russian speakers, and people living in Russia or nearby countries
The news follows revelations about data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica influencing the United States presidential election, partly through harvesting the personal information of 50 million Facebook users, and discussions with Zuckerberg about how Facebook should be regulated in the future.
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a sponsor of the Honest Ads Act, issued a statement in response to Facebook's announcement.
“For many months now, I have been pushing Facebook to more aggressively investigate and identify Russian-linked fake accounts on their platform. Given the scale and scope of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign, it was always clear that Russian activity on Facebook extended far beyond the 470 fake accounts and pages that the company shut down in September. Today’s disclosure of more IRA-linked accounts is evidence that the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division, spread disinformation, and influence political debates around the globe.
“I am glad that Facebook is taking some steps to pinpoint and address this activity, but I also expect Facebook and Mr. Zuckerberg, along with other platform companies, to continue to identify Russian troll activity and to work with Congress on updating our laws to better protect our democracy in the future.”
Facebook Deletes Hundreds of Accounts Controlled By Russian Propagandists (Motherboard)
Authenticity Matters: The IRA Has No Place on Facebook (Facebook)