Facebook has suspended more than 450 Facebook accounts that were caught spreading fake news and anti-India propaganda.

In total,&nbsp;453 Facebook accounts, 103 Facebook pages, 78 groups, and 107 Instagram accounts were spotted and suspended. All these accounts were, reportedly, operating from Pakistan, but claimed to be operating from India to gain trust of the followers.

These accounts were spreading fake news against India, Indian Military and minority communities in Pakistan. The content was being circulated mainly in forms of memes. The content talked about fake policies and criticised India's actions towards Pakistan and China.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/law-minister-prasad-urges-zuckerberg-to-protect-fb-from-a-lobby-that-abhors-free-speech-324546">Also read|&nbsp;Law Minister Prasad urges Zuckerberg to protect FB from 'a lobby that abhors free speech'</a>

"We found this network as part of our internal investigation into suspected coordination inauthentic behaviour in the region," Stanford Internet Observatory, who published the report, said.

"The network appears to have primarily targeted Pakistanis and Indians; posts were in Urdu, Hindi, English, and Punjabi. Facebook reports that 70,000 accounts followed at least one of the Pages and 1.1 million users belonged to the Groups," it added.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/misinformation-fake-news-india-calls-out-pakistan-over-false-propaganda-on-social-media-after-stanford-internet-observatory-report-324616">ALso read|&nbsp;'Misinformation, fake news': India calls out Pakistan over false propaganda on social media after Stanford Internet Observatory report</a>

In addition to Pakistan's fake accounts, Facebook also removed 13 accounts and two pages related to Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA). Nearly 55 accounts, 42 pages and 36 Instagram accounts were also suspended in the US for spreading fake news.

Meanwhile,&nbsp;Indian Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg on September 1 asking about Facebook being used for circulating hate-posts using political bias.

“I’ve been informed that in run up to 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, there was concerted effort by Facebook India to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no right of appeal to affected people who're supportive of right-of-centre ideology”, he wrote.

Facebook has suspended more than 450 Facebook accounts that were caught spreading fake news and anti-India propaganda. In total, 453 Facebook accounts, 103 Facebook pages, 78 groups, and 107 Instagram accounts were spotted and suspended.

Facebook has suspended more than 450 Facebook accounts that were caught spreading fake news and anti-India propaganda. In total, 453 Facebook accounts, 103 Facebook pages, 78 groups, and 107 Instagram accounts were spotted and suspended. All these accounts were, reportedly, operating from Pakistan, but claimed to be operating from India to gain trust of the followers. These accounts were spreading fake news against India, Indian Military and minority communities in Pakistan. The content was being circulated mainly in forms of memes. The content talked about fake policies and criticised India's actions towards Pakistan and China. Also read| Law Minister Prasad urges Zuckerberg to protect FB from 'a lobby that abhors free speech' "We found this network as part of our internal investigation into suspected coordination inauthentic behaviour in the region," Stanford Internet Observatory, who published the report, said. "The network appears to have primarily targeted Pakistanis and Indians; posts were in Urdu, Hindi, English, and Punjabi. Facebook reports that 70,000 accounts followed at least one of the Pages and 1.1 million users belonged to the Groups," it added. ALso read| 'Misinformation, fake news': India calls out Pakistan over false propaganda on social media after Stanford Internet Observatory report In addition to Pakistan's fake accounts, Facebook also removed 13 accounts and two pages related to Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA). Nearly 55 accounts, 42 pages and 36 Instagram accounts were also suspended in the US for spreading fake news. Meanwhile, Indian Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg on September 1 asking about Facebook being used for circulating hate-posts using political bias. “I’ve been informed that in run up to 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, there was concerted effort by Facebook India to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no right of appeal to affected people who're supportive of right-of-centre ideology”, he wrote.

Facebook suspends 453 accounts spreading fake news with anti-India propaganda

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/facebook-says-investigating-data-exposure-of-267-million-users-269245">Facebook </a>on Friday said it took down a network of accounts using fake identities while spreading pro-Trump messages at the social network and Instagram.

The campaign was one of two derailed for "engaging in foreign and government interference" and endeavoring "to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing," according to the Facebook head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher.

"In each of these cases, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action," Gleicher said in an online post.

The announcement marked the latest move by the huge social network against manipulation by accounts created with fake identities to amplify a political group or cause.

One campaign was traced by Facebook &nbsp;to US-based Epoch Media Group, which has been a connect to controversial religious organization Falun Gong, and an outlet known as The BL, according to Gleicher.

"The BL-focused network repeatedly violated a number of our policies, including our policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior, spam and misrepresentation, to name just a few," Gleicher said.

The BL has been banned from Facebook, he added.

Facebook removed 610 accounts, 89 pages, 156 groups and 72 Instagram accounts that originated in Vietnam and the US, some of which used profile photos generated by artificial intelligence and pretended to be people from the US, according to the social network.

The accounts "typically posted memes and other content about US political news and issues including impeachment, conservative ideology, political candidates, elections, trade, family values and freedom of religion," Gleicher said.

Examples provided of posts were pro-Trump.

About 55 million accounts followed one or more pages orchestrated by the campaign, which spent less than $9.5 million on advertising at Facebook and Instagram combined, according to the California-based internet firm.

The second network of accounts taken down at Facebook and Instagram originated in the country of Georgia and targeted people there, according to Gleicher.

"Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation linked this activity to Panda, an advertising agency in Georgia, and the Georgian Dream-led government."

A total of 39 Facebook accounts, 344 pages, 13 groups and 22 Instagram accounts that had amassed more than 440,000 followers overall were removed after being linked to the Georgia campaign.

The news came on the same day Twitter it had suspended thousands of accounts linked to a manipulation effort stemming from Saudi Arabia, aiming to amplify messages favorable to the government at home and abroad.

Facebook on Friday said it took down a network of accounts using fake identities while spreading pro-Trump messages at the social network and Instagram. The campaign was one of two derailed for "engaging in foreign and government interference" and endeavoring "to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing," according to the Facebook head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher.

Facebook on Friday said it took down a network of accounts using fake identities while spreading pro-Trump messages at the social network and Instagram. The campaign was one of two derailed for "engaging in foreign and government interference" and endeavoring "to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing," according to the Facebook head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher. "In each of these cases, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action," Gleicher said in an online post. The announcement marked the latest move by the huge social network against manipulation by accounts created with fake identities to amplify a political group or cause. One campaign was traced by Facebook to US-based Epoch Media Group, which has been a connect to controversial religious organization Falun Gong, and an outlet known as The BL, according to Gleicher. "The BL-focused network repeatedly violated a number of our policies, including our policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior, spam and misrepresentation, to name just a few," Gleicher said. The BL has been banned from Facebook, he added. Facebook removed 610 accounts, 89 pages, 156 groups and 72 Instagram accounts that originated in Vietnam and the US, some of which used profile photos generated by artificial intelligence and pretended to be people from the US, according to the social network. The accounts "typically posted memes and other content about US political news and issues including impeachment, conservative ideology, political candidates, elections, trade, family values and freedom of religion," Gleicher said. Examples provided of posts were pro-Trump. About 55 million accounts followed one or more pages orchestrated by the campaign, which spent less than $9.5 million on advertising at Facebook and Instagram combined, according to the California-based internet firm. The second network of accounts taken down at Facebook and Instagram originated in the country of Georgia and targeted people there, according to Gleicher. "Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation linked this activity to Panda, an advertising agency in Georgia, and the Georgian Dream-led government." A total of 39 Facebook accounts, 344 pages, 13 groups and 22 Instagram accounts that had amassed more than 440,000 followers overall were removed after being linked to the Georgia campaign. The news came on the same day Twitter it had suspended thousands of accounts linked to a manipulation effort stemming from Saudi Arabia, aiming to amplify messages favorable to the government at home and abroad.

Facebook blocks group spreading pro-Trump posts from fake accounts

In a crackdown against state-sponsored propaganda, social-media giants Facebook and Twitter said that they had blocked multiple government-backed manipulation operations around the world.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/facebook-blocks-group-spreading-pro-trump-posts-from-fake-accounts-269435">Facebook </a>said that it had blocked a network in Vietnam and the United States which posted pro-Trump messages targetting US citizens.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/twitter-suspends-thousands-of-accounts-that-were-linked-to-saudi-arabia-269402">Twitter</a>, on the other hand, claimed that it had blocked nearly 88,000 accounts linked to Saudi state-backed "information operations", in violation of its manipulation rules.

The Twitter safety team said that their analysis found that the network targetted discussions related to Saudi Arabia and was promoting Riyadh's geopolitical interests at an international level.&nbsp;

"Our internal analysis shows the network was involved in various forms of platform manipulation, targetting discussions related to Saudi Arabia and advancing their geopolitical interests on the world stage," the Twitter team said.&nbsp;

Twitter's investigations revealed Saudi-based social media marketing firm Smaat behind this campaign of manipulation. Smaat has been permanently blocked by the platform.&nbsp;

The Saudi-based firm was working for "high-profile individuals" and for several government departments in Saudi Arabia, Twitter said. Some of the tweets were of 2016 and were supporting&nbsp;the presidential campaign of US President Donald Trump.

Facebook said that the Vietnam network was traced to the multi-language media group Epoch Times, which is linked to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, and a US media outlet called BL, which has been uploading pro-Trump posts.&nbsp;

Facebook also said that it has removed more than 600 accounts on Facebook and Instagram.&nbsp;

"The people behind this activity made widespread use of fake accounts -- many of which had been automatically removed by our systems -- to manage pages and groups, automate posting at very high frequencies and direct traffic to off-platform sites," Facebook security chief Nathaniel Gleicher said.

"The BL-focused network repeatedly violated a number of our policies, including our policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior, spam and misrepresentation, to name just a few."

The Facebook security chief said that the fake accounts shared memes and content focussing on conservative ideology and US political issues such as Trump's impeachment, trade, family values, freedom of religion, among others.

(with inputs from AFP)

In a crackdown against state-sponsored propaganda, social-media giants Facebook and Twitter said that they had blocked multiple government-backed manipulation operations around the world.

In a crackdown against state-sponsored propaganda, social-media giants Facebook and Twitter said that they had blocked multiple government-backed manipulation operations around the world. Facebook said that it had blocked a network in Vietnam and the United States which posted pro-Trump messages targetting US citizens. Twitter, on the other hand, claimed that it had blocked nearly 88,000 accounts linked to Saudi state-backed "information operations", in violation of its manipulation rules. The Twitter safety team said that their analysis found that the network targetted discussions related to Saudi Arabia and was promoting Riyadh's geopolitical interests at an international level. "Our internal analysis shows the network was involved in various forms of platform manipulation, targetting discussions related to Saudi Arabia and advancing their geopolitical interests on the world stage," the Twitter team said. Twitter's investigations revealed Saudi-based social media marketing firm Smaat behind this campaign of manipulation. Smaat has been permanently blocked by the platform. The Saudi-based firm was working for "high-profile individuals" and for several government departments in Saudi Arabia, Twitter said. Some of the tweets were of 2016 and were supporting the presidential campaign of US President Donald Trump. Facebook said that the Vietnam network was traced to the multi-language media group Epoch Times, which is linked to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, and a US media outlet called BL, which has been uploading pro-Trump posts. Facebook also said that it has removed more than 600 accounts on Facebook and Instagram. "The people behind this activity made widespread use of fake accounts -- many of which had been automatically removed by our systems -- to manage pages and groups, automate posting at very high frequencies and direct traffic to off-platform sites," Facebook security chief Nathaniel Gleicher said. "The BL-focused network repeatedly violated a number of our policies, including our policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior, spam and misrepresentation, to name just a few." The Facebook security chief said that the fake accounts shared memes and content focussing on conservative ideology and US political issues such as Trump's impeachment, trade, family values, freedom of religion, among others. (with inputs from AFP)

Facebook, Twitter block state-sponsored manipulation accounts in latest crackdown