MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA — Facebook has uncovered a disinformation campaign that may have been aimed at influencing the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.<br /><br />According to a report from Facebook, 32 false pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram between March 2017 and May 2018 have been removed after they violated a ban on coordinated inauthentic behavior.<br /><br />The operatives put out a total of 9,500 posts Facebook, luring 290,000 people, who reportedly followed at least one of the pages.<br /><br />From April 2017 to June this year, the accounts ran 150 ads worth $11,000, paid for in American and Canadian dollars. They also created 30 events which attracted the interest of 4,700 accounts.<br /><br />One bogus page that promoted a counterprotest even coordinated with administrators from legitimate pages to co-host the event. Those admins have since been notified.<br /><br />Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg says investigation into the operation is still ongoing, reports the Washington Post.<br /><br />And while they haven't expressly identified the Russians as the culprits, tools and techniques used in this case were similar to those used by the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-linked group believed to have interfered with the 2016 presidential elections.
