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Facebook Says Russian Trolls Who Interfered in 2016 Election Are Back

Facebook Says Russian Trolls Who Interfered in 2016 Election Are Back

Facebook is reporting more disinformation attempts.

The social media network said it banned a “small network” of accounts affiliated with the same Kremlin-backed Russian hacking group that spread disinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Variety reported on Tuesday (September 1).

Facebook announced that it had removed 13 Facebook accounts and two Pages “linked to individuals associated with past activity by the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA).”

The IRA-linked campaign it removed in August “was largely unsuccessful on Facebook, but it tricked unwitting freelance journalists into writing stories on its behalf.” Facebook added that it is notifying the individuals who were contacted by the disinformation network.

The Russian IRA promoted links to fake news stories via a website called “Peace Data,” created by the network to appear like a legitimate news organization. The fake stories included headlines like “Bugaloo Movement: USA Far Right Is Growing Thanks to Donald Trump” and “UK Government Creates a Myth of a Migrant Crisis to Distract From Its Failures.”

Back in 2017, Facebook said Russia-linked content reached an estimated 126 million people during the 2016 presidential campaign season into 2017.

Speaking of fake news, this doctored video of Joe Biden went viral…

Just Jared on Facebook
Photos: Getty Images
Posted to: Facebook, Politics