Facebook removes thousands of fake accounts globally

Facebook has removed 1,196 accounts and 994 malicious accounts from Instagram, along with 7,947 Pages and 110 Groups involved in coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

In October, Facebook removed 14 networks of accounts, Pages and Groups. Eight of them — from Georgia, Myanmar, Ukraine and Azerbaijan — targeted domestic audiences in their own countries and six networks — from Iran, Egypt, the US and Mexico — focused on people outside of their countries.

In Myanmar, it removed 36 Facebook accounts, six Pages, two Groups and one Instagram account linked to Openmind, a PR agency.

"We found this network as part of our proactive investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behaviour in the region ahead of the November election in Myanmar," Facebook said in a statement.

The social network also removed 10 Facebook accounts, 8 Pages, 2 Groups and 2 Instagram accounts operated by individuals in Myanmar. They focused on domestic audiences.

In the US, Facebook removed 202 Facebook accounts, 54 Pages and 76 Instagram accounts linked to Rally Forge, a US marketing firm, working on behalf of Turning Point USA and Inclusive Conservation Group.

"We are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we've said before, it's an ongoing effort. We're committed to continually improving to stay ahead," Facebook said.

"When we find domestic, non-government campaigns that include groups of accounts and Pages seeking to mislead people about who they are and what they are doing while relying on fake accounts, we remove both inauthentic and authentic accounts, Pages and Groups directly involved in this activity," it explained.