Facebook deletes hundreds of Russian accounts linked to ‘troll factory’

Facebook has deleted hundreds of Russian accounts and pages associated with a ‘troll factory’ that has tried “to deceive and manipulate people” around the globe. 

Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, told a news agency that he does not “want them on Facebook anywhere.” According to him, many of the deleted articles and pages were sourced to Federal News Agency of Russia, which was closely linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA). 

The accounts and pages that have been deleted were mostly Russian. The evidence collected by Facebook indicated that many of the organisations were controlled and operated by the IRA, which was among the three firms indicted by the US for trying to tamper the presidential campaign last year. 

Facebook has been in the eye of a storm after it revealed that information relating to 50 million users landed up with Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, which was hired by Donald Trump during his presidential campaign. 

The company’s chief security officer noted that uncovering the activity of the IRA took months of work by its team. 

“Facebook was built for conversation and human connection,” said Alex Stamos, the CSO. “It’s why we ask that people using our service be themselves — whether it’s an individual, a business or a nonprofit.” 

According to him, 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. 

“The IRA has consistently used inauthentic accounts to deceive and manipulate people. It’s why we remove every account we find that is linked to the organisation — whether linked to activity in the US, Russia or elsewhere,” said Stamos. “We know that the IRA — and other bad actors seeking to abuse Facebook — are always changing their tactics to hide from our security team.”