Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Facebook has suspended five accounts for misleading tactics during last year's U.S. Senate race in Alabama.

A statement from Facebook says the company "recently removed five accounts run by multiple individuals for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook around the Alabama special election." Facebook says the investigation is ongoing.

The Washington Post and New York Times have reported that a social media researcher acknowledged testing misleading online tactics during U.S. Sen. Doug Jones' campaign against Republican Roy Moore last year.

The effort was modeled on alleged Russian attempts to bolster the candidacy of President Donald Trump in 2016.

Jones told reporters last week that his campaign didn't know anything about the effort. He said he is "as outraged as everyone else" about the allegations.

Jones narrowly defeated Moore by just under 22,000 votes in a race where more than 1.2 million were cast.

In a statement, Moore -- who faced accusations of sexual assault and harassment during the election -- said the social media tactics demonstrate "something we’ve always known: a lot of people and a lot of money went into a gigantic effort to allow a radical liberal Democrat to steal Alabama’s Senate seat."

Contributing: Brian Lyman/Montgomery Advertiser