Facebook deletes the KGB fake profiles of Belarus

Facebook has also deleted several pseudo-newsgroup profiles and groups from Facebook and Instagram in recent months. Among them are those created by the Belarusian KGB in connection with the refugee crisis at the Polish border.

Facebook posted a detailed report on Wednesday on what steps the community site has taken in recent months against the spread of false news and rogue information. According to the report, the report has dismantled several disinformation networks related to global political actors and events.

According to the Washington Post, Facebook, for example, has eliminated Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization, several groups linked to the Chinese state leadership, and groups that spread fake news about the refugee crisis at the Polish border. In addition, anti-vaccination groups that have subtly attacked the credibility of European doctors have been deleted.

According to the paper, the report shows the cat-and-mouse struggle that characterizes the community platform well. And Facebook’s heresy is well exemplified because certain political actors and other organizations are trying to mislead the public through this.

Even after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Meta began working to somehow dismantle fake information networks on the platform. Since then, he has deleted hundreds of political organizations, companies, and groups from the community site. Russia remains at the forefront of disinformation, the company said in a 2020 report.

Facebook has not disclosed how many people the posts used to disinform have reached, so the actual impact of the campaigns is unknown. The Chinese operation, for example, was discovered by the company after a profile publishing itself as a Swiss scientist. Wilson Edwards said the United States was putting pressure on the World Health Organization to lock in China because of the coronavirus epidemic.

A day after the fake account began to post, Chinese state papers picked up the entries. Although Facebook has not determined whether the operation is tied to the Chinese state, experts say the collaborative process suggests this.

Facebook has also deleted dozens of Facebook and Instagram profiles that have revealed themselves to Middle Eastern migrants at the Polish border, as well as journalists. Pseudo-profiles communicating in English and Arabic, created in September and October, have criticized Poles for causing a humanitarian crisis.

“Facebook says some of these are linked to the Belarusian KGB.”

But the company said they also deleted groups set up by Hamas to support the terrorist organization as an external actor and deleted anti-vaccination groups known as V_V in France and Italy to incite journalists and doctors. The groups claimed that vaccination against the coronavirus would lead to a “health dictatorship.”

Facebook says it will pay more attention and resources in the future to dismantling coordinated and sophisticated phishing networks.