Facebook has removed hundreds of social media accounts and banned an Israeli firm due to "co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour" mainly targeting Africa.

The fake accounts often posted on political news, including on elections in various countries, the firm said.

Facebook has faced rising criticism for failing to stamp out misinformation on its platform.

It launched a fact-checking programme in 2016 shortly after Donald Trump became US president.

In a blog post , Facebook said it had removed 265 social media accounts that originated in Israel and focused on Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Niger and Tunisia, along with "some activity" in Latin America and South East Asia.

"The people behind this network used fake accounts to run pages, disseminate their content and artificially increase engagement.

"They also represented themselves as locals, including local news organisations, and published allegedly leaked information about politicians," Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, wrote in the post.

An investigation found that some of the activity was linked to Israeli company Archimedes Group, Mr Gleicher said.

"This organisation and all its subsidiaries are now banned from Facebook, and it has been issued a cease and desist letter," he said.

Facebook bans Israeli-based fake accounts for interfering in Nigerian elections.

PULSE NIGERIA | SAMSON TOROMADE

Facebook has banned accounts that violated its misrepresentation policy to influence elections in Nigeria.

The accounts were caught engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior that targeted countries in three continents.

The accounts were caught engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior that targeted countries in three continents.

Facebook has removed a total of 265 accounts, pages, groups and events involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior which aimed to influence elections in Nigeria and other countries.

Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, announced at a press conference on Thursday, May 16, 2019 that the activity originated in Israel and focused on Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Niger and Tunisia along with some activity in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

The social media giant disclosed that some of the suspected activity was linked to Archimedes Group, a Tel Aviv-based political consulting and lobbying firm.

Gleicher noted that the network used accounts to run pages, disseminate their content and artificially increase engagement.

"They also represented themselves as locals, including local news organizations, and published allegedly leaked information about politicians.

"The Page administrators and account owners frequently posted about political news, including topics like elections in various countries, candidate views and criticism of political opponents," Gleicher said.

Facebook further accused Archimedes of repeatedly violating its misrepresentation policy as well as other policies such as engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior.

"This organisation and all its subsidiaries are now banned from Facebook, and it has been issued a cease and desist letter," Gleicher announced.

Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher said that
65 Facebook accounts, 161 Pages, 23 Groups, 12 events and four Instagram accounts were removed and blocked from the social media platform.

About 2.8 million accounts followed one or more of the affected Pages, while about 5,500 accounts joined at least one of the Groups, and around 920 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts.

Gleicher also revealed that around $812,000 was spent by the group for ads on Facebook paid for in Brazilian reals, Israeli shekel, and US dollars.

The first ad ran in December 2012 and the most recent ad ran in April 2019.

"We're constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don't want our services to be used to manipulate people.

We're taking down these Pages and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they posted.

"As in other cases involving coordinated inauthentic behavior, the individuals behind this activity coordinated with one another to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing, and that was the basis for our action," Gleicher explained.

Even though Facebook could not authoritatively determine Archimedes' motives, Gleicher told journalists that it may be commercial or political or for some other strategic goal.

On its About page, Archimedes revealed that it has taken significant roles in many political and public campaigns, among them Presidential elections and other social media projects all over the world.

"Archimedes consists of experts from a wide spectrum of fields, consulting, lobbying, public diplomacy, International public relations, information, and social media," the group wrote.

Its slogan reads "Winning campaigns worldwide" on its official website.

At the time of filing this report, the organisation is yet to respond to inquiries about which campaigns it ran in Nigeria which recently organised general elections.

Facebook has, in recent times, been criticised for being pivotal to the spread of fake news and foreign interference with its lax policies that allows politicians b

lai Mohamed-atiku paid israel company to spread fake news abt Nigeria election

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Fake news regarding Israel linking to Nigeria?? I know those who are behind that