Facebook removes more than a hundred fake Russian accounts

Facebook has removed more than a hundred fake pages, groups, and accounts in Russia. The social networking site announced this. Facebook previously also held a big chaste in other countries, such as Iran.

Facebook stated that it has discovered two operations in Russia, which are not linked to each other and which were intended to mislead users.

One of the two consisted of 97 accounts, pages, and groups associated with the situation in Ukraine. They were all removed, said Facebook manager Nathaniel Gleicher.

The people behind the pages used fake accounts to organize and feed the pages, but also to encourage other users to sign up for another site.

Thorough investigation

The pages each had approximately 34,000 followers and 86,000 users had joined at least one of the groups. “We were able to identify some of these accounts thanks to an in-depth investigation of the accounts we had removed earlier this year for the Ukraine elections,” Gleicher explains.

In addition, 21 Facebook and Instagram accounts have been deleted. They spread content with regard to Austria, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the Baltic States.

Facebook says it has shared the information with the legal authorities.