Facebook: Fake Instagram accounts used Trump, Kanye and social issues to target voters

Jessica Guynn | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Facebook to fight fake news in election war room Facebook has unveiled its new election war room designed to assist employees with finding and deleting fake news and bogus accounts aimed at interfering with elections. (Oct. 18)

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook on Tuesday revealed more details about the fake Russian-linked Instagram accounts that posted politically divisive content on race and gender and on public figures such as President Donald Trump and Kanye West in a bid to influence voters in the midterm elections.

More than 1 million people – 600,000 in the U.S. – followed at least one of the 99 Instagram accounts right up until the day before the U.S. midterm elections when the social media giant, acting on a tip from the FBI, took them down.

The accounts are suspected to have been the work of Russia's Internet Research Agency, the group that tried to sway the 2016 presidential election by spreading politically divisive messages.

A website purporting to present the Internet Research Agency claimed responsibility for the effort last week, but Facebook has stopped short of attributing the activity to the Kremlin-linked group.

"This effort may have been connected to the IRA, but we aren't best placed to say definitively whether that is the case," the company wrote in a blog post. "As multiple independent experts have pointed out, trolls have an incentive to claim that their activities are more widespread and influential than may be the case. That appears to be true here as well."

In all, the social media giant said it removed 36 Facebook accounts, six Facebook pages and nearly 99 Instagram accounts that coordinated to spread messages that spanned the political spectrum before the election.

Some accounts focused on celebrities, likely an effort to build an audience to then mix in polarizing and political messages. The accounts also paid particular attention to race and gender issues, including hot-button topics such as violence against African-Americans and transgender rights, appealing to liberals and conservatives alike, sometimes with posts designed to offend people, such as one that equated Christianity with child abuse, The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab found.

Taking both sides on divisive issues such as feminism, gun control, abortion or Nike's campaign with Colin Kaepernick was another common tactic deployed by the accounts to deepen political differences.

Facebook says it was alerted by the FBI to the accounts on Nov. 4 and removed them on Nov. 5. The accounts were recent, most of them created after mid-2017.

About 65,000 people – 60 in the U.S. – followed at least one of the Facebook pages, which contained posts mostly in French. The pages bought about $4,5000 worth of ads. None of the ads ran in the U.S. The Instagram accounts didn't buy any ads.

More: Russia's Internet Research Agency may have been behind Facebook election meddling

More: Facebook discloses possible election meddling by Russia, foreign actors on eve of midterms

More: Facebook uncovers Iran disinformation to sow political discord over Trump, race

The drumbeat of revelations underscores the difficult task of shielding elections from foreign interference on social media.

After heavy criticism from lawmakers for failing to detect and purge election meddling in 2016, Facebook has made safeguarding elections around the world one of its top priorities.

It has set up an elections "war room" on its campus in Menlo Park, California, where data scientists, engineers and other employees monitor foreign election manipulation, disinformation, voter suppression and other security challenges under a large American flag. It's also hired more people and strengthened automated systems to monitor what's posted on Facebook, and it has introduced tighter controls on who can buy political ads.

In August, Facebook said it foiled political influence campaigns originating out of Iran and Russia targeting U.S. users ahead of the midterm elections. The campaigns, which mimicked previous Kremlin-linked efforts to stir political discord, also took aim at users in the U.K., the Middle East and Latin America in a bid to influence world politics.

Facebook announced last month it had uncovered another covert Iranian disinformation campaign which attempted to sow political discord ahead of the November midterms.

Iran and Russia have denied any involvement in Facebook disinformation campaigns.

More: Facebook, Twitter whack away at midterm misinformation on Election Day

More: Who paid for that political ad in your Facebook feed? It's not always easy to figure out