Facebook has uncovered fake accounts exercising coordinated political influence ahead of the midterm elections in the US which is to be held in November.
On Tuesday, the social media company confirmed that 32 pages and accounts were removed from both Facebook and Instagram because of their involvement in “co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour”.
Facebook has mentioned that they are still unable to confirm Russia’s role in the situation. Russia was previously accused of interfering in the 2016 election. However, they have managed to disclose the fake accounts ahead of the planned protests which are to take place in Washington D.C. next week.
These fake accounts had apparently used more advanced techniques to conceal their identities by hiring others to run ads for them.
Facebook has not been able to identify the involvement of Russian-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) in this particular situation even though the fake accounts had used similar tactics.
In a statement, Facebook mentioned:
“It’s clear that whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their true identities than the Russian-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) has in the past”.
“We’re still in the very early stages of our investigation and don’t have all the facts – including who may be behind this. But we are sharing what we know today given the connection between these bad actors and protests that are planned in Washington next week.”
