advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Facebook blocks 115 accounts ahead of today’s US midterm elections

Today is the United States’ midterm elections, and while American politics isn’t something that innately interests us, these elections should prove an interesting spectacle.

No, not because of President Donald Trump, but rather to see if outside influence will play a part in results as they did during the 2016 presidential elections.

Two years ago, it was social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter that were used as tools by state-sponsored hackers in order to affect the outcome.

Now Facebook is aiming to limit their influence by taking a more decisive stance on accounts that appear to be engaged in inauthentic behaviour as the company terms it.

So much so that they have confirmed that 115 accounts have been blocked ahead of today’s elections, with 30 being on Facebook and 85 on Instagram (which Facebook owns).

“On Sunday evening, US law enforcement contacted us about online activity that they recently discovered and which they believe may be linked to foreign entities,” noted Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook in a recent Newsroom post.

“Our very early-stage investigation has so far identified around 30 Facebook accounts and 85 Instagram accounts that may be engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior. We immediately blocked these accounts and are now investigating them in more detail,” adds Gleicher.

At this stage there is very little known about the accounts, other that the majority of the Facebook accounts are Russian and French in origin, and the Instagram ones said to be English, according to Facebook.

With outside influencers seemingly having as big an outcome on elections as voters do in recent years, it should be interesting to see if Facebook will be able to curb their effect for these midterm elections.

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement