Mar 13, 2020

Facebook closes African fake accounts targeting US voters

Facebook and Twitter have taken down a network of African-based fake accounts linked to previously banned Russian trolls. Twitter said the accounts attempted to "Sow discord". All of the fake accounts focused on topics such as black history, fashion, celebrity gossip, US news and LGBTQ issues. One account posed in a Facebook group as the cousin of an African American who died in police custody, according to CNN. Facebook said the accounts were relatively new and operating out of Africa on behalf of Russian individuals with links to notorious troll factory the Internet Research Agency. "We're taking down these pages and accounts because this activity was linked to individuals associated with the Internet Research Agency, an entity we had previously banned from Facebook. They also used fake accounts and co-ordinated with one another to mislead people about what they were doing."

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