Facebook's battle with misinformation rages on and in a new round of page removals, the social media platform announced that it took down 2,632 pages as part of its cleanup scheme with Russian pages accounting for the biggest operations.
According to Business Insider, Facebook said there were three separate operations involved in "coordinated inauthentic behavior." The cleanup team traced operations from Macedonia, Kosovo, Iran, and Russia. Of the pages that were removed from the popular social media network, Russia recorded a total of 1,907 personal accounts, pages, and groups.
While some of the Russian operation's pages spread news related to Ukraine, most of its activities involved spam-production. A number of the Russian operation's groups had a following of around 1.7 million, indicating that Facebook's battle with misinformation has not yet ended.
The Iranian operation, on the other hand, focused on creating media organizations that do not exist. The pages and groups also amplify serious topics such as the ongoing tensions between Pakistan and India as well as issues between Palestine and Israel.
The Facebook team further revealed that the Iranian network dished out an estimated $15,000 on ads that date back to 2013, suggesting that there could be more work that needs to be done in completely eradicating pages and accounts that spread fake news and information for social media users to absorb.
Meanwhile, Market Watch reported that Mark Zuckerberg's company is taking necessary measures to reduce potential widespread misinformation as India's 2019 election draws near. The outlet noted that Facebook said it will implement an array of precautionary steps throughout the election campaign period and voting.
Director of Facebook's Product Management for Civic Integrity Division, Samidh Chakrabarti, stressed that Indian elections are a "top priority" in the firm's task list for the next two months. He said third-party contractors will be deployed for the purpose of blocking fake accounts and pages that display inaccurate reports or suspicious behavior.
Chakrabarti further explained that the American social media giant is working closely with Indian media groups to ensure that only true stories are shared on the platform. Whether in Hindi or English and other Indian dialects, false information will be taken down.
The Indian government has repeatedly called out Facebook for the spread of false news and rumors linked to alleged mob killings in the country. To address the issue, the firm said it will implement stricter rules and will deploy contractors who will work to keep incorrect and suspicious information from spreading.
Facebook saw a significant sales drop late last year ever since fake news emerged from the platform. The company has since established stricter profile-creation rules as part of the scheme to block suspicious accounts.
