Facebook says more than 290,000 accounts followed at least one of the fake pages. The most followed Facebook Pages had names such as “Aztlan Warriors,” ”Black Elevation,” ”Mindful Being,” and “Resisters.”
Facebook says it has removed 32 accounts and pages believed to have been set up to influence the mid-term US elections in November.
According to a Facebook official, the company held briefings in the House and Senate this week. The official declined to be named because the briefings were private.
The company said it doesn’t know who is behind the efforts, but said there may be connections to Russia.The social network said in a blog that it had identified 17 suspect profiles on Facebook and seven Instagram accounts.
Facebook said the suspect accounts had also run about 150 ads on Facebook and Instagram, costing a total of $11,000 (£8,300).The social network said it had not found evidence of Russian IP (internet protocol) addresses.
The announcement comes as Facebook continues to be criticised for failing to protect the public from the kind of fake posts and disinformation that were spread in advance of the US presidential election.
It is not clear whether or not it is connected to those high-profile attacks, which Facebook has connected to the Russian state.
Facebook and other social-media networks have been criticized by lawmakers for failing to recognize and take steps to stop those efforts.
As such, Facebook might never be able to say where the attack was coming from, said Alex Stamos, Facebook’s chief security officer.
Facebook first became aware of the strange behaviour when it spotted the first unusual accounts two weeks ago, said Nathaniel Gleicher, its head of cybersecurity policy. They have now all been removed.
