Facebook takes down suspected Russian network of pages

[JonLP24]

Facebook has removed a network of accounts and pages involved in what it called "coordinated inauthentic behavior," the company said Tuesday.

In briefings on Capitol Hill, Facebook has told lawmakers that it suspects a Russian group is behind more than 30 pages advocating US political stances, according to a congressional source briefed on the matter. One page promoted a "No Unite the Right 2" march -- a counter demonstration to a planned "Unite the Right" event to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the march in Charlottesville in which a woman was killed. There was also an effort to amplify the "Abolish ICE" message pushed by liberals, the source said.

Publicly, Facebook is saying it does not know for sure who was behind the network, but is saying it has "found evidence of some connections between these accounts" and accounts that had been run by Russian trolls in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. The company also said it had reported the network to law enforcement and to Congress.

Facebook said the "Resisters" page, which organized the "No Unite the Right 2" event, recruited real activists who "unwittingly helped build interest in" the event" and posted information about transportation, materials, and locations so people could get to the protests."

https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/31/technology/facebook-removes-pages/index.html

[kimbutgar]

1. Until Facebook starts deactivating and developing better analytics to spot phoney accounts

I’m done with Facebook until then.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

2. It's not as easy as one would think. nt

[Dave Starsky]

4. Anything's better than nothing.

Put a reCAPTCHA on it. The Facebook addicts in my family wouldn't mind identifying a few cars and road signs in the way of getting their fix.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

6. Actually, they are doing a LOT right now (which is what this article is stating)

Captcha for social media is a dumb idea. Would you want to do a captcha for every post on DU? Nothing but a bottleneck that is easily circumvented.

Keeping in mind that a LOT of these Russian accounts are NOT bots. They are people. Fraudulent accounts, but people nonetheless... Yes, there are SOME bots, and those are much easier to detect.

[Dave Starsky]

8. Captcha for social media is an idea whose time has come.

I would certainly think about whether what I had to say was really important if I had to identify a few bicycles and sidewalks every time.

Or they could do the draconian thing and ban ALL political discussions, like every employer I've had for the last 20 years has done.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

9. Once again, Captcha is EASILY circumvented.

If the Russian accounts are run by people (they are), then those people can identify the same bicycles and sidewalks that you do.
Captcha's purpose is to prevent bots from spamming comment sections and things like that. It would be USELESS on social media and would end up pissing off the user base. Not to mention, it's a HUGE bottleneck and a hassle, especially for those who use their phones to access social media (ie, a HUGE portion of social media users).

At this point, captcha is a pretty antiquated technology. Why would anyone adopt it this late in the game?

[Dave Starsky]

10. Because it's a great idea, despite what you say.

It IS a bottleneck and a hassle, and only a Facebook-addicted human being would drag themselves through it to post pictures of their grandkids at the swim meet for all of their "friends" to glory over.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

11. But it is USELESS in this situation is what I am saying.

How is it going to stop fake Russian accounts? Tell me how.

[Ezior]

15. It really won't work

Russia paid hundreds of IRA employees, using millions of USD. CAPTCHAs would hamper their efficiency a little bit, because the employees would need to solve a CAPTCHA after coming up with a post, but the IRA could simply hire 3% more people and be done with it.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

16. Exactly. nt

[Scurrilous]

3. Good news!

[GemDigger]

5. Until he notifies individual users who have been used

everything he says and does is useless.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

7. They did that awhile ago. December 2017

A lot of people were notified that they had shared and/or liked pages that were from fake Russian accounts.

[triron]

12. Caution! I don't believe this material is coming from Russians.

This is very suspicious. Facebook is fronting for the Republicans.
This is propaganda to discredit the meme that Russians are interfering on the side of
Republicans. This is my take so far.

[JonLP24]

13. Actually that thought did cross my mind

Considering the targets of it but I still have an open mind on whether this was Russian or not. What I do know Facebook has been terrible in controlling on what's on their pages.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

14. Nah, this is how they operated before as well.

They divided the Dems using BLM and Bernie Sanders supporters, and they stoked the racist fires of the Republicans. This was their EXACT MO leading up to the election.

[JonLP24]

17. A lot of those so called "Bernie Bros"

Were Russian trolls. I hated the fact bullshit over at Facebook drifted over to DU.

They weren't an accurate representation of overall Bernie Sanders supporters which I known grandma's as Sanders voters.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

18. Exactly.

That's what I meant when I said they targeted Sanders supporters.