Facebook, Twitter Remove Accounts Tied to Manipulative and Inauthentic Behavior

Facebook and Twitter on Tuesday announced that they had removed close to 1000 accounts tied to coordinated deception. Facebook removed 652 pages, groups and accounts, while Twitter got rid of 284 accounts, most of which seemed to originate from Iran.

Facebook’s coordinated inauthentic behavior deals with issues that include foreign election manipulation and real events posted by fake accounts. Recently, the company has slashed hundreds of accounts in various coordinated attempts, which also stretched to some Instagram accounts.

Among the groups of accounts removed include Liberty Front Press. Facebook claims the data and the IP showed that the accounts were linked to Iranian state media. The group, on the other hand, defended themselves by saying they are an independent media organization. Two more groups linked to Liberty Front Press that uploaded political content about the Middle East were also removed.

According to Facebook, some of the content posted by these accounts featured a range of topics including U.S politics to Brexit immigration.

Facebook explains that it doesn’t have to dig deeper into the accounts to fathom who actually own them. The choice to remove the accounts depends on the threats and the world events.

“We want people to be able to trust the connections they make on the platform, which is why we ban these kinds of behavior,” said Facebook in a statement.

Conversely, Twitter’s announcement was rather short. The company stated in two tweets that it had slashed 284 accounts for coordinated manipulation. Again, it said that majority of the accounts appeared to have originated from Iran.

Twitter’s removal of the accounts comes not long after it suspended more than 70 million bot and fake accounts. The fight against suspicious accounts has recently escalated and the company says it is committed to engaging with law enforcement bodies and other companies in the fight.