Facebook came under fire when it was revealed that Russian groups were buying many ads for the purpose of influencing people to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The social media giant is now taking the threat of groups from other countries very seriously. They are now sharing their efforts to stop what they refer to as influence campaigns. These are coordinated attempts to get many people to perform a certain act. Facebook just announced that one of these influence campaigns has been stopped. This one was connected to the government of Saudi Arabia. There were more than 300 Facebook accounts that were deleted.
Facebook also removed more than 30 Instagram accounts that they had linked to the same Saudi influence campaign. The number of followers on all the removed accounts totaled roughly 1.3 million. The people who created these fake accounts also paid more than $100,000 to place ads on Facebook and Instagram. The group had tried to hide the fact that they were linked to the government of Saudi Arabia. However, people who work for Facebook were able to put the pieces together and make the connection. The various Facebook pages would post stories that would praise the various activities of the Saudi government. They would also say negative things about all of the countries in the region that are enemies of Saudi Arabia.
According to CNBC, the influence campaign based in Saudi Arabia also had another group that was doing work in both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The social media giant was able to connect many of the fake pages created by this group to a couple of marketing companies that are based in these countries. Once again, more than 300 Facebook accounts needed to be deleted. These accounts had almost 14 million total followers. The Egypt and UAE operation spent a combined total of nearly $170,000 on Facebook ads.
Facebook said that it is committed to eliminating influence campaigns like the one that was just thwarted. New software that the company has just recently started using makes detecting these groups much easier than in the past. These groups are very skilled at hiding their identities. That is why Facebook needs to remain vigilant and not let their guard down. The Saudi government and the two marketing companies that were implicated in the influence campaign have not replied to requests for comment from the media.
Dil Bole Oberoi
