Facebook 'takes down Russian trolling operation targeting US 2020 election'

Facebook has dismantled four new foreign interference operations originating from Russia and Iran, including one targeting the 2020 US presidential elections, the company said.

The social media giant’s head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher said the operation against the upcoming US election appeared to be linked to Russian troll agency the Internet Research Agency (IRA).

Some 50 Instagram accounts and one Facebook that originated in Russia were removed, with Mr Gleicher saying the campaign had the hallmarks of a “well-resourced” operation.

He said in a blog post on Monday night: “We removed 50 Instagram accounts and one account on Facebook that originated in Russia and focused primarily on the US.

“This campaign showed some links to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and had the hallmarks of a well-resourced operation that took consistent operational security steps to conceal their identity and location.

“As we’ve seen before, this appears to have made it difficult for many of these accounts to build the following among authentic communities.”

Those behind the operation posted on political issues including topics like US elections, environmental issues, racial tensions, LGBTQ issues, political candidates, confederate ideas, conservatism and liberalism, the cybersecurity boss said.

“They also maintained accounts presenting themselves as local in some swing states, and posed as either conservatives or progressives,” he said in the blog post.

Three of the networks intercepted by Facebook on Monday originated from Iran, the fourth from Russia, and targeted the US, North Africa and Latin America, he said.

“All of these operations created networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing,” Mr Gleicher revealed in his post.

“We have shared information about our findings with law enforcement, policymakers and industry partners.”

Facebook is attempting to bolster its efforts against interference ahead of US presidential elections in 2020, including a special security tool for elected officials and candidates that checks their accounts for hacking attempts, as well as a new US presidential candidate spend tracker.

The social network pledged to add more information about who is behind a page, starting with large pages in the US.

From next month, Facebook said it will start labelling media outlets that are wholly or partially under the editorial control of their government, as state-controlled media.