Facebook removes 790 ‘fake’ accounts linked to Pakistan, India

ISLAMABAD: Facebook is removing 103 pages, groups and accounts linked to a subsidiary of Pakistan’s establishment, the social media giant announced Monday, calling them "fake" accounts created to manipulate people.

The statement by Facebook’s head of cyber security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, shines a rare light on efforts to use social media as a propaganda tool.

"Today we removed 103 Pages, Groups and accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour on Facebook and Instagram as part of a network that originated in Pakistan,” Gleichner said in the statement, adding that the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, but Facebook investigation found that it was linked to employees of an institution in Pakistan.

Gleichner said that the employees were operating fan pages. Some 2.8 million accounts followed one or more of the pages, he said.

Others pages praised Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan for promoting peace, or propagated unverified claims of shooting down of five Indian planes. “We are constantly working to detect and stop coordinated inauthentic behaviour because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people,” Gleichner said.

The spokesman for the subsidiary had no immediate comment when contacted by AFP.

Facebook also said it was removing 687 pages and accounts engaged in similarly “inauthentic” behaviour that were linked to India´s opposition Congress party, which is contesting nationwide elections due to start on April 11. Congress reacted cautiously, with spokesperson Manish Tewari saying the party “will need to verify the veracity of these reports”. A recent standoff between India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir saw a deluge of “fake news” hit social media, raising concerns over misinformation in the upcoming election in India.