Facebook scrubs accounts spreading disinformation in Moldova ahead of heated election
Facebook has removed nearly 200 accounts and pages for spreading fake news about Moldova ahead of an election that could deepen the divide between the country’s pro-Russian and pro-Western lawmakers. The social media company announced Wednesday it took 168 Facebook accounts, 28 pages and eight Instagram accounts offline for misleading users in Moldova about who they were. The pages posted frequently about political issues such as required Russian language education and Moldova’s supposed reunification with Romania posed as a fact-checking organization or spread doctored photos, Facebook said. “Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our manual review found that some of this activity was linked to employees of the Moldovan government,” Facebook said. Roughly 54,000 accounts followed at least one of the pages Facebook has removed, and some 1,300 accounts followed one of the Instagram pages. Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe, is scheduled to […]
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