FAKE NEWS PURGE: Facebook bans 800 accounts

Facebook on Thursday announced it has removed hundreds of pages and accounts as the company cracks down on spam.

The move comes at a time when Facebook is under intense scrutiny about how it handles misinformation, particularly as the U.S. midterm elections draw near.

The company said it has collectively removed more than 800 pages and accounts showing “inauthentic behavior;” that is, making moves to mislead users about who they are and what they are doing. That could include anything from using the profile to send spam or post comments created to stir up political debate, to money-motivated ad farms disguising themselves as forums for discussion.

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“Today, we’re removing 559 pages and 251 accounts that have consistently broken our rules against spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at the social network, in a Thursday post. “Given the activity we’ve seen — and its timing ahead of the U.S. midterm elections — we wanted to give some details about the types of behavior that led to this action.”

Gleicher stressed that Facebook looked at accounts’ behavior – such as repeatedly posting spam – rather than their content when deciding which accounts, pages or groups to remove.

 

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