The raids on the social network Facebook are aimed at large-scale fraud and without specific content. Facebook removed several accounts spreading misinformation in the US ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Share content.
According to Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of privacy policy, the group’s motives are unclear. At the same time, he stressed that Facebook acted to block the organization for using fake accounts to deceive the company’s algorithms, not the specific content they posted.
In addition, Facebook made a bigger sweep by banning 303 Facebook accounts and 31 Instagram accounts linked to Epoch Media Group, the publisher of The Epoch Times. The accounts are run to promote conspiracy theories related to the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing Black Lives Matter protests in the US, Canada and many other countries. Facebook says about 2 million accounts on both platforms tracked the aforementioned accounts.
This is not the first time Facebook has acted against the Epoch Media Group. In August 2019, Facebook banned the company from its social media activities because of its shady ad buying practices. And also in 2019, the social networking giant implemented a ban on 610 Facebook accounts and 72 Instagram accounts associated with a company that is acting as a proxy for Epoch Media Group.