Facebook Blocks Deceptive Campaign From Pro-Trump Group
On Thursday, Facebook announced it blocked a campaign using fake accounts to applaud US President Donald Trump as part of its recent crackdown on preplanned deception.
The social media site has banned US marketing firm Rally Forge, which rendered the “inauthentic behavior” on behalf of the pro-Trump youth groups Inclusive Conservation Group and Turning Point USA, as per head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher.
Activity by the fake accounts mostly involved commenting on news articles rather than sharing their own content, according to Facebook.
According to Facebook, the comments included criticism of the Democratic party and its presidential nominee former vice president Joe Biden and praises of Mr Trump and the Republican party.
The network seems to have started its operations in 2018, having targeted previously at the midterm elections in the US, the social network added.
Facebook deleted 200 accounts and 55 pages at the platform and 76 Instagram accounts it said were part of the deceitful campaign and violated policy against coordinated inauthentic activities.
The social network also revealed that around 3,73,000 accounts followed one or more Facebook pages associated with the campaign and around 22,000 users followed one or more of the Instagram accounts.
“Many of these accounts used stock profile photos and posed as right-leaning individuals from across the US,” Facebook said.
In 2018, some of the accounts acted as people with left-leaning views to post comments about news articles or public figures.
Gleicher said, “Although the people involved in this network tried to hide their identities and coordination, our finding linked this activity to Rally Forge.”
“Facebook has banned Rally Forge now. We are consistently monitoring all linked networks, and will take appropriate actions if we found they are engaged in deceptive behavior.”
Recruiting teens
According to Gleicher, Facebook’s probe into the network was initiated with Washington Post reports about some elements of the campaign.
As per the report, Rally Forge recruited teenagers to coordinate pro-Trump posts across social media in a secret operation of a campaign organized by Turning Point, a group headed by vocal Trump supporter Charlie Kirk.
About a million dollars was spent by Rally Forge on promotion, with not all of those marketing messages linked to the misleading campaign, according to social network.
While not officially connected to the Trump campaign, Turning Point, which claims it is active at more than 1,500 universities across the country, has managed events for the president.
When we thwarted fake accounts using automated systems, those running the campaign shifted to “less thinly veiled” approach such as applying variations on real names to look more authentic, according to Gleicher.
“We see these disguised repeatedly caught between a rock and a hard place, which makes them easier to catch,” Gleicher said.
“We know they will continue to attempt to mislead people, including by making opinions seem more common than they are.”
Comments about trophy or sport hunting by the fake accounts, supposedly aimed at increasing the perception of support for the activity, were aimed mostly at the US, and a bit at people in Kenya and Botswana, Gleicher said.
Gleicher said Facebook’s efforts to unearth campaigns of deception are compelling those behind them to work harder to evade defenses.
Operations being removed appear to be younger, with fewer followers, than campaigns uncovered in the past, he added.
“We see them using strategies that take much more time to develop, like building a credible seeming organization across networks and giving it a back story,” Gleicher said.
He reiterated Facebook’s call for elected leaders to know the proper line between political advocacy and deception when it is about content that should be deemed unacceptable on the web.
“That is a societal challenge that we think requires legislation,” Gleicher said.
