Facebook removes fake accounts that tried to stir hate in UK, Romania

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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook

Facebook says it removed fake accounts that spread articles, videos and memes aimed at inciting hate and political division in Britain and Romania.

The social media giant said in a blog post Thursday evening on its blog that it took down 137 Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups in the U.K., and another 31 Facebook accounts, pages and groups in Romania.

Facebook Head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher said the platform discovered a network of people operating fake accounts in the U.K. to “engage in hate speech and spread divisive comments on both sides of the political debate.”

Meanwhile, in Romania, the company said it found both fake and real accounts on the platform spreading posts in support of the country’s Social Democratic Party (PSD). Some of the accounts had ties to an individual associated with the PSD, Facebook said.

The firm shared examples of the posts being circulated. One post in Britain criticized Gerard Batten, the leader of the pro-Brexit U.K. Independence Party (UKIP), for calling Islam a “death cult,” while another said people on the left of the political spectrum “don’t have to know anything.”