Facebook removed 99 Instagram accounts, 36 Facebook accounts, and six Facebook pages linked to Russia on the eve of the 2018 midterm elections based on a Nov. 4 tip from the FBI.
The social media giant said in a statement Tuesday that many of these accounts were linked to Russian trolls and might be connected to the Internet Research Agency, a group that special counsel Robert Mueller says is responsible for Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Facebook previously announced that accounts had been removed, but did not release the scope and reach of these accounts.
Most of the accounts were created after mid-2017, according to Facebook, and one of the accounts had 600,000 U.S. followers, meaning the reach of the accounts in total could be in the millions.
The six Facebook pages spent a combined total of $4,500 on advertisements, but none of the ads ran in the U.S. One of the pages posted a lot about feminism exclusively in French.
Some of the Instagram accounts removed by the company were blckbusiness, lgbtq.daily, outraged.patriot, and black.dollar.
Content related to social issues was the main focus of the various accounts, and the posts would include hashtags like #DonaldTrump, #MakeAmericaGreatAgain, #Feminism, #GayPride, and #BlackPride.
“To stay ahead of this misuse, we need to continue to invest heavily in security, as well as our work with governments and other technology companies,” Head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook, Nathaniel Gleicher, said. “It will take the combined efforts of the public and private sectors to prevent foreign interference in elections.”
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