Facebook Removes Hundreds of Pages Linked to Pakistan Army, Indian Parties
Facebook removed 103 accounts, groups and pages on both Facebook and Instagram that formed part of a network.
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. removed hundreds of pages and fake accounts it said were linked to Pakistan’s military and India’s main political parties in an apparent crackdown on disinformation across South Asia.
The social networking site said on Monday it had removed 103 accounts, groups and pages on both Facebook and Instagram that formed part of a network linked to employees of the Inter Services Public Relations, the information wing of Pakistan’s armed forces. The military couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
Facebook also removed 687 pages and accounts it said were associated with the Congress party, India’s main opposition. The company also took down another 15 linked to an Indian company called Silver Touch, which has alleged connections to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party and has made posts favorable to the BJP.
The moves come as Facebook faces increased criticism to stem the spread of hate speech and fake news, that have led to mob lynchings in India and accusations of army-led press repression in Pakistan. Ahead of national elections in India starting this month, the social media network in March added disclaimers for political ads and announced recent product changes for messaging platform WhatsApp.
“We didn’t find any links between the campaigns we’ve removed today, but they used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing,” Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, said in a statement that posted examples of the content removed.
‘Inauthentic Behavior’
“We are constantly working to detect and stop coordinated inauthentic behavior because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people,” he said.
Over the weekend, Facebook made a public bid to shape the narrative around Internet regulation amid widespread skepticism that it can police its own networks.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Nick Clegg -- the company’s head of global affairs -- urged regulators around the world to agree on standards governing online content -- and to prevent a patchwork of different regulations that make it difficult for international companies to comply.
The social media giant’s push follows growing scrutiny by governments of Facebook around the world, and an effort by the company to get out ahead of possible regulatory actions. Elsewhere in Asia, Facebook removed 200 accounts and content in the Philippines last week for similar offenses.
--With assistance from Kamran Haider and Abhay Singh.
To contact the reporter on this story: Faseeh Mangi in Karachi at fmangi@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Arijit Ghosh at aghosh@bloomberg.net, Chris Kay, Khalid Qayum
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