Posted on Nov 6, 2018
Facebook Blocks More Than 100 Accounts, Citing Possible Foreign Influence
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On the eve of mid-term election, Facebook said Monday that it had blocked 115 social media accounts after receiving a warning from federal law enforcement officials of "coordinated inauthentic behavior" that could be linked to foreign entities.
In a blog post Monday night, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cyber security policy, said 85 of the accounts were on the company's Instagram service, with the remainder on Facebook itself.
Gleicher wrote that the accounts were immediately blocked after the company was notified Sunday evening of suspicious behavior and that the questionable accounts — potentially linked to foreign entities — are being investigated "in more detail."
"[Almost] all the Facebook pages associated with these accounts appear to be in the French or Russian languages, while the Instagram accounts seem to have mostly been in English," he said, adding that some of the accounts were focused on celebrities, with others on politics.
In a blog post Monday night, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cyber security policy, said 85 of the accounts were on the company's Instagram service, with the remainder on Facebook itself.
Gleicher wrote that the accounts were immediately blocked after the company was notified Sunday evening of suspicious behavior and that the questionable accounts — potentially linked to foreign entities — are being investigated "in more detail."
"[Almost] all the Facebook pages associated with these accounts appear to be in the French or Russian languages, while the Instagram accounts seem to have mostly been in English," he said, adding that some of the accounts were focused on celebrities, with others on politics.
Facebook Blocks More Than 100 Accounts, Citing Possible Foreign Influence
Posted from npr.org
Facebook
Cybersecurity
Cyber
Hacking
Propaganda
Posted >1 y ago
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I wonder and hope our Defense Attaché and other military stationed overseas is not effected....especially if they were talking to their mom about politics. That could be influence from a foreign country.
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When you are a global platform - with hundreds of millions of users.. closing such accounts is a question into itself. Was it key communicators that were looked at - or just trolls? Influence is not a trolls item - it has to be gained and maintained and is not done by just posting up or disseminating. However - you can easily overstep and close down others as well when not focused on who your really looking for if you do not understand how influence operations work.. In the end - a platform has a hard time monitoring its own when it is multinational and global.
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