Facebook blocks 115 potentially fake accounts at Election Eve after federal advice

Facebook has blocked 115 accounts of federal authorities saying they are acting suspicious and may be "related to foreign entities" and coordinate their activities. He discovered a move in the blog on Monday – the day before important mid-term elections in the United States.

In this position, Chief of Police Cibersecuriti Nathaniel Gleicher said: "On Sunday night, the US police service contacted us online activities that they recently discovered and they believe could be linked to foreign subjects.

"Our very early investigation has so far identified about 30 Facebook accounts and 85 Instagram accounts that may deal with coordinated non-authentic behavior. We immediately blocked those accounts and now they are investigating them in more detail. It seems that accounts are in French or Russian, while it seems that Instagram accounts were mostly in English – some were focused on celebrities and other political debates. "

Gleicher added that Facebook will usually continue to research accounts before he leaves the public about his moves, but he wanted to quickly say the word from the day of the election.

"Once we know more – including whether these accounts are linked to the Russian Internet Research Agency or other foreign entities – we will update this post," he concluded.

The Internet Exploration Agency was a Russian entity caught in the February indictment of the Special Defender Robert Mueller of 13 Russian citizens and three companies. The indictment accused them of violating US laws to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The Accused, Deputy Prosecutor Rod Rosenstein, said they were conducting an information war against the United States. Twelve indicted individuals worked at various times for the Internet Research Agents.

Narrow tech companies increase security and efforts to combat disinformation campaigns as online troublemakers, including Russian groups trying to split voters and discredit democracy. Cleaning Facebook is part of the countermeasures to prevent abuses like those used by Russian groups two years ago to influence public opinion ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Last month, the company removed 82 pages, accounts and groups related to Iran, aimed at fomenting social conflicts in the United States and the United Kingdom. In August, he made even wider passage, removing 652 pages, groups and accounts related to Russia and Iran.