In 2018, Facebook stated that during 2018 they had identified "coordinated inauthentic behavior" on "many pages, groups and accounts created to spark political debate, including in the US, the Middle East, Russia and the UK." [390]
The campaigns operated by the British intelligence agency unit, called the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, have been divided into two categories; cyberattacks and propaganda efforts. Propaganda efforts use "mass posts" and "push [for] stories" through social media sites like Facebook. [391] [392] Israel's Jewish Internet Defense Force, China's 50 Cent Party, and Turkey's AK Trolls also focus their attention on social media platforms such as Facebook. [393] [394] [395] [396]
In July 2018, Samantha Bradshaw, co-author of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) report at the University of Oxford, said that "the number of countries where formally organized manipulation of social media occurs has risen sharply, from 28 to 48 countries worldwide. Most of the growth comes from political parties that spread misinformation and junk news during electoral periods "[397].
In October 2018, The Daily Telegraph reported that Facebook "banned hundreds of pages and accounts that it says were fraudulently flooding its site with partisan political content, even though they came from the United States rather than associated with Russia." [398]
In December 2018, The Washington Post reported that "Facebook suspended the account of Jonathon Morgan, the CEO of a major social media research firm" New Knowledge, "following reports that he and others participated in an operation to spread the word. disinformation "on Facebook. and Twitter during the 2017 United States Senate Special Election in Alabama. [399] [400]
In January 2019, Facebook said it had removed 783 accounts, pages and groups linked to Iran for engaging in what it called "coordinated inauthentic behavior." [401]
In May 2019, Tel Aviv-based private intelligence agency Archimedes Group was banned from Facebook for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" after Facebook found fake users in countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia [ 402]. Investigations by Facebook revealed that Archimedes had spent around $ 1.1 million on bogus advertisements, paid for in Brazilian reais, Israeli shekels, and US dollars. [403] Facebook gave examples of Archimedean Group political interference in Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Niger, and Tunisia. [404] The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Laboratory said in a report that "The tactics employed by Archimedes Group, a private company, closely resemble the types of information warfare tactics commonly used by governments, and the Kremlin in particular." . [405] [406]
On May 23, 2019,buy Facebook published its Community Compliance Report highlighting that it has identified several fake accounts through artificial intelligence and human monitoring. In a six-month period, from October 2018 to March 2019, the social network's website removed a total of 3.39 billion fake accounts. The number of fake accounts was reported to exceed 2.4 billion real people on the platform. [407]
In July 2019, Facebook made progress in its efforts to counter deceptive political propaganda and other abuses of its services. The company removed more than 1,800 accounts and pages operating from Russia, Thailand, Ukraine and Honduras. [408]
On October 30, 2019, Facebook removed several accounts of employees who worked at the Israeli group NSO, stating that the accounts were "removed for not following our terms." The deletions came after WhatsApp sued the Israeli surveillance company for attacking 1,400 devices with spyware. [409]
In 2020, Facebook helped found American Edge, an anti-regulation lobbying company to fight antitrust investigations. [410]
The Thai government is forcing Facebook to remove a Facebook group called Royalist Marketplace with 1 million members after sharing potentially illegal posts. The authority also threatened the Facebook representative to face criminal prosecution. In response, Facebook plans to take legal action against the Thai government for suppression of freedom of expression and violation of human rights. [411]
Russian interference
See also: Internet Investigation Agency and Russian Interference in the 2016 US Elections
In 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian citizens and three Russian organizations po