Facebook continues it’s fight against “fake news” with more page takedowns

Facebook revealed on Monday that it has removed more pages, groups, and accounts that originated in Russia and were being deceptive about who was behind them and what they were up to.  

The takedown at Facebook and Instagram was described as part of an ongoing battle against “coordinated inauthentic behavior” which has blocked numerous fake accounts from around the world.

“We found two separate, unconnected operations that originated in Russia and used similar tactics, creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing,” Facebook head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a blog post.

He added that the takedowns were based on the deceptive behavior of those behind accounts, and not the content posted.

Fake accounts were used to operate pages and groups, spread their content and ramp up engagement, as well as to get people to visit an outside website.

Facebook did not disclose the identities of those behind the accounts.