Facebook wipes more 'inauthentic' accounts

Facebook has removed more than 2000 accounts, most linked to Russia and Iran, for what the company described as "coordinated inauthentic behaviour".

Facebook is a popular social media application.

Social media penalties have been passed. Source: AAP

Facebook has removed more accounts from Iran, Russia, Macedonia and Kosovo, citing what it described as "coordinated inauthentic behaviour".

A total of 2632 pages, groups, and accounts were removed from Facebook and Instagram for operations linked to the countries, the social media platform said.

Of the removed accounts, 513 were tied to Iran and 1907 linked to Russia.

The accounts tied to Russia were largely removed for spam with a small portion of those engaging in activity the company described as coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

Facebook also said the pages and accounts were removed for their behaviour, and not their content.
The social media platform has recently been cracking-down on such accounts in many countries after coming under fire in the last two years for its self-admitted sluggishness in developing tools to combat extremist content and propaganda operations.

The company had also removed certain accounts tied to Iran earlier in January.


Share
1 min read

Published

Updated



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world
Facebook wipes more 'inauthentic' accounts | SBS News