Facebook removes fake accounts and pages tied to Russia Sputnik

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Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc. attends the Viva Tech start-up and technology gathering at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on May 24, 2018 in Paris, France. 

Facebook has removed hundreds of fake pages and accounts linked to Russian operations, the company has confirmed.

In a blog post published Thursday, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said the company had removed “multiple pages, groups and accounts that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram.”

Gleicher said the fake accounts were part of two separate operations, both originating in Russia. One was linked to employees at Sputnik, a Russian news agency based in Moscow. The operation included 364 pages and accounts operated in the Baltics, Central Asia, and Central and Eastern European countries, Facebook said.

Facebook said it was removing the pages on the basis that the people behind the activity “coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves.”

The page administrators and account owners presented themselves as independent news pages or general news pages on topics ranging from the weather, travel and sports, Facebook said.