Facebook Deletes Fake Accounts That Mimic Russian Tactics Ahead of Election -- Update

By Robert McMillan and Deepa Seetharaman

Facebook Inc. said it deleted a new group of politically oriented accounts that were engaged in coordinated misinformation efforts ahead of the U.S. midterm elections that resemble Russian activities on the platform during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The social-media giant on Tuesday said it removed 32 pages and accounts from its main service and its Instagram photo-sharing app that were created between March 2017 and May of this year. The pages and accounts -- which include names such as "Aztlan Warriors," "Black Elevation," and "Resisters" -- collectively created more than 9,500 posts and were followed by more than 290,000 other Facebook accounts.

Facebook said those responsible for the accounts and pages took great care to cover their tracks, using virtual-private networks and internet phone services and routing ad purchases through third parties. It said the "Resisters" page, one of the most popular of the group, created an event page on Facebook for a protest planned for Aug. 10-12 called "No Unite the Right 2 - DC" that enlisted support from real people. It was scheduled to protest another event planned for Washington, D.C., called "Unite the Right."

Facebook's revelation raised the specter of continuing outside interference just over three months ahead of the midterm elections -- and five months after special counsel Robert Mueller secured indictments against a group of Russians for using an organization called the Internet Research Agency to manipulate Facebook and other social-media platforms during the 2016 campaign. Those IRA accounts agitated over politically divisive issues and orchestrated political events involving real people.

Facebook on Tuesday said it first detected some of the new inauthentic accounts about two weeks ago, and hadn't yet determined who may be behind it. The company said that there was evidence connecting the accounts to last-year's Russian activity, but there were also differences. For example, the IRA accounts sometimes connected to Facebook directly from computers based in Russia. That's not the case with the new accounts, Facebook said.

The new activity is "further evidence that the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division and spread disinformation," Sen. Mark Warner (D.,Va.) said in a statement.

Facebook said it removed the 17 profiles and eight pages from its main app, along with seven Instagram accounts, for violating its ban on "inauthentic behavior." It said it had deleted them on Tuesday after sharing information from its initial investigation with U.S. law enforcement agencies, members of Congress, and other technology companies.

The banned accounts ran 150 ads on Facebook and Instagram costing approximately $11,000 between April 2017 and last month. In all, they also organized about 30 events on the site, dating back to May 2017, one of which events attracted the interest of 4,700 Facebook accounts, with 1,400 saying that they would attend.

Write to Robert McMillan at Robert.Mcmillan@wsj.com and Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 31, 2018 13:52 ET (17:52 GMT)

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