Facebook removes Russian-linked social media accounts in Sudan over foreign policy’s interference
Facebook’s main building/office (source:Facebook)
Nov 1st, 2019 (SSNN)-Facebook, the world’s largest social media company, has announced the removal of suspicious networks of social media accounts linked to Russia. According to the company, there are more than 17 pages linked to Facebook and other major social media platforms that have been targeted for their role in facilitating and participating in political activities that interfere with foreign policy.
“Today, we removed three networks of accounts, Pages and Groups for engaging in foreign interference — which is coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign actor — on Facebook and Instagram,” said Facebook.“We also removed 17 Facebook accounts, 18 Pages, 3 Groups and six Instagram accounts that originated in Russia and focused primarily on Sudan. The people behind this activity used a combination of authentic accounts of Sudanese nationals, fake and compromised accounts — some of which had already been disabled by our automated systems — to comment, post and manage Pages posing as news organizations, as well as direct traffic to off-platform sites. They frequently shared stories from SUNA (Sudan’s state news agency) as well as Russian state-controlled media Sputnik and RT, and posted primarily in Arabic and some in English.”
According to Facebook, the owners of the targeted Facebook pages in Sudan are widely known for posting and commenting on political issues, including Russian-Sudanese relations and Russian foreign policy in the African countries.
“The Page administrators and account owners posted about local news and events in Sudan and other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Sudanese-Russian relations, US-Russian relations, Russian foreign policy and Muslims in Russia.”
Adding that: “We found this activity as part of our internal investigations into Russia-linked, suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior in Africa.”
Presence on Facebook and Instagram: 17 Facebook accounts, 18 Pages, 3 Groups and 6 accounts on Instagram.
Followers: About 457,000 accounts followed one or more of these Pages, about 1,300 accounts joined at least one of these Groups and around 2,900 people followed one or more of these Instagram accounts.
Advertising: Around $160 in spending for ads on Facebook paid for in Russian rubles. The first ad ran in April 2018 and the most recent ad ran in September 2019.
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