Facebook says it will act against 'information operations' using false accounts

[WePurrsevere]

Source: Reuters

Facebook Inc acknowledged on Thursday that it has become a battleground for governments seeking to manipulate public opinion in other countries and outlined new measures it is taking to combat what it calls “information operations” that go well beyond the phenomenon known as fake news.

In a report and summary of response plans on its website on Thursday, Facebook describes well-funded and subtle efforts by nations and other organizations to spread misleading information and falsehoods for geopolitical goals.

These initiatives go much further than posting fake news stories to include amplification - essentially widening the circulation of posts through a variety of means - carried out by government employees or paid professionals, often using fake accounts.

-snip-
Facebook said its security team would now fight information operations, which it regards as a more complex problem than traditional hackers and scammers, by suspending or deleting false accounts after identifying them with a combination of machine learning and intelligence agency-level analysis.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-propaganda-response-idUSKBN17T2G6

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Thanks to DUer Justice for calling my attention to this. I barely post on FB anymore because it's such a hot mess with obvious paid trolls, etc.

[VigilantG]

1. Same here. I haven't posted to FB since August because it was so riddled with bots causing discord.

[Justice]

2. Thanks for the shout out!

Here is link to FB Report:
https://fbnewsroomus.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/facebook-and-information-operations-v1.pdf

"Part of our role in Security at Facebook is to understand the different types of abuse that occur on
our platform in order to help us keep Facebook safe, and agreeing on definitions is an important
initial step. We define information operations, the challenge at the heart of this paper, as actions
taken by organized actors (governments or non-state actors) to distort domestic or foreign
political sentiment, most frequently to achieve a strategic and/or geopolitical outcome. These
operations can use a combination of methods, such as false news, disinformation, or networks of
fake accounts aimed at manipulating public opinion (we refer to these as “false amplifiers”)."



Tried to get my earlier OP reopened but Mods have not responded to my message (its been more than an hour)...

[WePurrsevere]

4. You're welcome...

I'm sorry I didn't use your link but too I tend to be cautious about unknown size PDF links since they automatically download to my tablet and occasionally lock me up (which is a tad annoying).

[Odoreida]

3. Facebook is just one big security breach.

I have a friendless lurker account to prevent impersonation, and that's it.

[csziggy]

5. I hate Facebook but my husband stays on it a lot

Checking in with his siblings and our nieces and nephews, plus some of his friends.

I have an account that I use to post stuff I think he would like so he can see it and share it on his Facebook page. The only friends I have are my husband and my sister - and she almost never posts anything on her page.

There are also a few organizations I follow on Facebook to keep up with what they are doing. I might look at my Facebook page once a week to check the notifications, but that's about it.