Facebook has deleted C of pages linked to the Kremlin - back propaganda connection have intercourse as Sputnik . The pages , allegedly engage by Sputnik employee , were made to look like they were coming from outside of Russia . The Facebook pageboy helped spread propaganda about NATO and European politics , among many other topics .
The declaration by Facebook came earlythis morningand according to the company the possessor of the pages “ primarily represented themselves as independent tidings ” electrical distributor . In fact , the Sir Frederick Handley Page were operate by employees of Sputnik , a propaganda agency of the Kremlin very similar to Russia ’s RT . And just like RT , Sputnik is focused on reaching a non - Russian hearing , whether that ’s mass in the United States or citizen of European countries that just so take place to have elections coming up this year .
Some of the 364 Facebook pages were discovered by independent researchers who alerted the company , but others were taken down after a hint from U.S. law enforcement . According to Facebook , or so 790,000 accounts follow these astroturfed Page . The tech company says that it has shared data from its own investigation with both American jurisprudence enforcement members and Congress .
“ We are constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we do n’t want our services to be used to manipulate citizenry , ” Facebook ’s head of cyber security insurance policy , Nathaniel Gleicher , said in astatement .
“ We ’re taking down these Pages and account statement ground on their behavior , not the substance they post , ” Gleicher continue . “ In these cases , the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves , and that was the base for our action . ”
The propaganda pageboy ran advertizement , according to Facebook , spending roughly $ 135,000 with the technical school company , pay for in euro , rubles , and American one dollar bill . The first advertising reportedly set forth in October of 2013 and these account were even running advertizement as recently as this month .
accord to Facebook , many of the pages showed a keen involvement in the politicians of countries like Romania , Latvia , Estonia , Lithuania , Armenia , Azerbaijan , Georgia , Tajikistan , Uzbekistan , Kazakhstan , Moldova , and Kyrgyzstan . Some of those countries have election coming up his twelvemonth .
Russia famously seek to disrupt the American 2016 presidential election in party favour of Donald Trump and seems to have come through , though it ’s admittedly tough to order how much of an impingement Russia ’s propaganda really had on the final outcome of the election . The only thing we know for sure is that President Trump has never acted against the interests of the Russian governance and the FBI even opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump was aRussian agent . It ’s unclear whether that investigation is on-going .
The Sputnik employee also created events on Facebook , though we do n’t know how many multitude may have attended them , let alone whether the event even come about . According to Gleicher , close to 190 result were created by the pages . The first was in August of 2015 , and the most recent consequence is schedule for this month .
Gizmodo has reached out to Facebook asking for a list of the events so that we can inquire for ourselves whether any of them may have happen .
Facebook says that Sputnik employees have also been very active in Ukraine and created pages made to face like they originate in Ukraine . The pages were “ share local Ukrainian news narration on a sort of topics , such as weather condition , protest , NATO , and health conditions at school . ” The Sputnik movement in Ukraine also had 41 Instagram accounts that have since been deleted .
The Russian government has a keen stake in Ukraine and infamously invade Crimea in 2014 . Russia has put to work to destabilize the Ukrainian government and has pass a great good deal of time spreading propaganda in the country .
“ We identify some technical overlap with Russia - found activity we get a line prior to the US midterm exam elections , including doings that shared characteristics with previous Internet Research Agency ( IRA ) bodily process , ” Facebook allege .
“ Our protection efforts are on-going to help us stay a step ahead and reveal this kind of abuse , particularly in light of important political moments and election in Europe this year , ” Facebook said .
“ We are attached to make improvements and building stronger partnerships around the world to more effectively detect and stop this activeness .
Correction : The caption for the photo of President Putin initially included a typo that identified the date as December 25 , 2019 . Gizmodo does not have time travel capableness ( yet ? ) and we regret the error .
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