Russia-linked anti-vax network removed from Facebook
A Russian network of accounts have been removed from Facebook for promoting anti-vaccine content. The company said it has taken down 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts from Russia that were linked to Fazze, a subsidiary of a UK-registered marketing firm whose operations were primarily from Russia.
”This cross-platform operation targeted audiences primarily in India, Latin America, and to a much lesser extent the United States. We found this network after reviewing public reporting about an off-platform portion of this activity.”
Facebook said the Russian campaign functioned as ”a disinformation laundromat”.
“It created misleading articles and petitions on multiple forums including Reddit, Medium, Change, and Medapply. It then used fake accounts on social media, including Facebook and Instagram, to seed and amplify this off-platform content, using crude spammy tactics.”
”The crux of the campaign, though, appeared to be engaging influencers with pre-existing audiences on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok to post content and use particular hashtags without disclosing the origin of the posts. This use of influencers appeared to be in line with the firm’s advertised services, which included access to “a large list of bloggers from Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook… [where] Accounts are ready to post your ads for reasonable pricing. Work with bloggers directly without any 3rd party”, Facebook said in its report about face accounts in July.
New CIB (coordinated inauthentic behaviour) networks that Facebook removed in July:
- Total number of Facebook accounts removed: 144
- Total number of Instagram accounts removed: 262
- Total number of Pages removed: 13
- Total number of Groups removed: 8
Among networks removed are 79 Facebook accounts, 13 Pages, eight Groups, and 19 Instagram accounts in Myanmar that targeted domestic audiences and were linked to individuals associated with the Myanmar military.
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