Facebook slashes more Russian accounts
 

Some linked to state-owned news agency Sputnik

Facebook has removed hundreds of Russia-initiated accounts, which it judged to be involved in coordinated inauthentic behaviour on its platforms.

Some of the accounts were linked to state-owned news agency Sputnik.

Sputnik attacked the social network for a decision it said was political and amounted to censorship of seven Facebook pages belonging to its news hubs in neighbouring countries.

Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, wrote in his bog it had unearthed two separate operations which originated in Russia, with one active in multiple countries across eastern Europe and the other specific to Ukraine.

The social media company said it had taken down about 364 Facebook pages and accounts operating in Baltic Sea states, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and parts of Europe, and that the pages were linked to Sputnik employees.

“Despite the misrepresentations of their identities, we found that these pages and accounts were linked to employees of Sputnik”, Gleicher wrote.

“Some of the pages frequently posted about topics like the anti-NATO sentiment, protest movements and anti-corruption.”

Facebook has been under fire for the last two years for its admitted sluggishness in developing tools to combat extremist content and propaganda operations.

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