Facebook takes down fake accounts, pages, groups

ISLAMABAD: In a recent Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour (CIB) report of Facebook, the social media platform has taken down 40 Facebook accounts, 25 Pages, six Groups, and 28 Instagram accounts based in Pakistan, foreign media reported.

“Although the people behind it attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to individuals associated with AlphaPro, a Pakistan-based PR firm,” the California-based Facebook said in a press statement earlier this week.

“Key narratives advanced by the network included: praise for Pakistan and its armed forces; efforts to denigrate India and highlight attacks by Hindu nationalists targeting religious minorities; support for Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan; and promotion of the government-backed China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) investment project.” said a Graphika report, a New-York-based a research firm that studies misinformation and analyses manipulation of social networks.

Facebook has identified and taken down the network of these fake media outlets. The mentioned accounts and pages are the prime entities spotted in the operation. The official ‘CJ post’ Facebook page was created in January 2016, branding itself as a “classified journal”. The associated website - cjpost.co.uk, created in February 2019, has a total of six articles concerning these issues like human rights violations involving religious minorities in India, Kashmir independence and abuses its people have suffered at the hands of the Indian military, and alleged diplomatic tensions between India and US.

The Facebook page of ‘Poorv Files’ was created in May 2020. This news media outlet uses to publish short videos on the Facebook page and associated youtube channel and the majority of video content is focused on Pakistan’s rivalry with India. Freelance journalists who appeared in most of the videos are supportive of the Pakistani government.