Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Facebook has detected a coordinated effort to influence the 2018 US midterm elections

Facebook has detected a coordinated effort to use its social network to influence the 2018 US mid-term elections, according to a report in the New York Times on Tuesday.

"We're still in the very early stages of our investigation and don't have all the facts - including who may be behind this," Facebook said in a blog post published after the Times story published.

Facebook has not directly linked the efforts to Russia, the Times reported, thought it cited two anonymous sources that said Russia was "Possibly" involved.

The election influence campaign involves dozens of inauthentic Facebook accounts and pages, the report says.

"The most followed Facebook Pages were 'Aztlan Warriors,' 'Black Elevation,' 'Mindful Being,' and 'Resisters.' The remaining Pages had between zero and 10 followers, and the Instagram accounts had zero followers," Facebook wrote.

Just last week Facebook refused to answer questions about whether it had detected any such efforts to influence or interfere in the midterm elections.

Facebook, which has more than 2 billion members worldwide, has come under increased scrutiny following revelations that its social network was used to spread misinformation during the 2016 US presidential election, as well as other important elections and referendums, such as the "Brexit" campaign in Britain.

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-coordinated-effort-influence-2018-us-midterm-elections-2018-7

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