Facebook has got rid of a network of fake accounts and pages created through Russian agents who had recruited American journalists to write articles criticizing Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, an obvious attempt to undermine their liberal voters.
Facebook said it had blocked the network of thirteen fake accounts and two pages earlier, before it had a chance to win a wide audience, an action that, according to the company, is evidence of its growing effectiveness in attacking foreign misinformation operations before the 2020 election. following advice from the FBI and one of dozens of operations connected to the Russian Internet Search Agency or affiliates that Facebook has interrupted since the last presidential election, when IRA-backed pages gained millions of insights on the platform. The pages had about 14,000 subscribers.
“They have taken a step forward to hide who they are, but their effect is getting smaller,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, on foreign operations.
Facebook said Tuesday that it got rid of a disinformation network related to a Washington-based PR company that it said had spent millions of dollars targeting users in Latin America. The content included articles supporting political opposition in Venezuela and Bolivia’s interim government, as well as a complaint from a Mexican political party, Facebook said.
In the case of the Russian disinformation network, Facebook said agents had created fictional characters on Facebook to direct others to a new site called Peace Data, which was presented as a “global press organization” whose purpose was to “soften global problems. “and raise awareness of corruption, environmental crisis, abuses of power, armed conflict, activism and human rights. “
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A Facebook article about the far-right defense force movement known as the “boogaloo” movement included a headline that read, “America’s far right is developing thanks to President Trump,” according to a report provided through Facebook.
A report released Tuesday through Graphika, a New York-based network analytics company that gained Facebook knowledge in advance, found that the Russian effort is limited but echoes beyond efforts to undermine Democratic Party applicants through a good look for the left-wing American electorate. Among the targets were Biden and Harris, Democrats for California, who were criticized through the false network as an immoral team of conservative politicians. Some articles also criticized Donald Trump, but the target audience in the United States were disgruntled Democratic socialists, environmentalists, and Democrats, according to the report.
Some of the false content has been about racial justice and riots in the United States since the murder of George Floyd in May. “The English content about Biden and Harris was notable for its hostile tone,” according to the Graphika report. An article through a guest accused the couple of ‘submission to right-wing populism’ . . . both to hold runs and to win votes.
“The operation seemed designed to divide democrats and decrease for Biden and Harris,” said Camille Francois, Graphika’s director of innovation.
In 2016, Russian Internet Research Agency agents conducted extensive disinformation campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, attracting a massive audience with content seeking to sow a department among the US electorate and Trump’s presidential campaign. Technology platforms have suffered a heavy backlash from Congress and the public for not avoiding foreign interference and have since invested resources in combat opposing this activity.
As the 2020 election approaches, experts say that generation corporations have become more adept at getting ahead of foreign interference, even when risk has spread beyond Russia to countries like China and Iran. But social media platforms are still full of incorrect information and abuse. of national actors who have viraled false stories about existing occasions.
Facebook said it planned to count some two hundred hounds recruited through Russian agents.
One of the hounds who wrote columns for Peace Data, who spoke on anonymity about his career, said an editor contacted him via a direct message on Twitter in July providing $200 according to the article.
He seized the opportunity in a component because he had lost his homework in the pandemic. He has written about the QAnon, Covid and climate change conspiracy movement of American militarism.
The co-optation of involuntary premises is a development strategy used through foreign disinformation agents.
“Hiring others who master language and culture avoids the kind of storytelling that an operation can reveal,” said Renée DiResta, head of technical studies at Stanford’s Internet Observatory, who followed the strategy.
Most peace data content in English, with 500 articles in total. Approximately 5% explicitly targeted U. S. elections and candidates. There were also two hundred articles in Arabic, found graphika.
Disinformation investigators do not take into account that the Internet Research Agency, the St. Petersburg-based operation charged through U. S. officials for interference in the 2016 presidential election, continues to operate in the same way as it did years ago. Americans and teams that appear to have had a past association with the IRA, using an updated manual that generally comes to more specific, if less viral, efforts for political debates and elections.
Avoiding detection is a key goal of such operations, experts say. Facebook and Twitter, for example, took steps to oppose a Russia-linked operation in March that was running with a non-profit organization in Ghana and sought to influence the black electorate in the United States. The IRA in 2016, on the other hand, spread viral messages on social media platforms designed to succeed in a large number of electorates based on political interests and affiliations. Russian operations in 2016 paid announcements to the US electorate. Russian currency, indicating a lack of fear of detection.
The public relations company interested in the other retreat was CLS Strategies, Facebook said. Headquartered a few blocks from the White House, CLS has in the past begged foreign consumers using Facebook, according to data and its own website.
A clS Strategies spouse, Juan Cortinas, said in a statement: “CLS has a long culture of running internationally, adding on social media, advertising free and open elections, and opposing oppressive regimes, and we take seriously our commitment to comply with Facebook’s constantly changing policies and social media platforms. “
Cortinas refused to ask additional questions about the nature of the company’s involvement.
Facebook’s Gleicher said the effort concerned 55 Facebook accounts, 42 Facebook pages and 36 accounts at the Instagram photo sharing subsidiary, audiences in Venezuela, Mexico and Bolivia. $3. 6 million in advertising.
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