Facebook Inc. shut down a number of China-originated pages, groups and accounts involved in "coordinated inauthentic behavior."
Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, said in an Aug. 19 blog post that the social media giant removed seven pages, three groups and five accounts working as part of a small network focused on the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. Gleicher said Facebook's investigation found links to individuals associated with the Chinese government.
The individuals behind this campaign frequently posted about local political news and issues including topics like the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. They were using various tactics to further their agenda, such as using fake accounts, managing pages posing as news organizations, posting in groups, disseminating their content and driving people to off-platform news sites, according to the blog post.
Gleicher added that the company has shared its analysis with law enforcement and industry partners and it will continue to monitor the situation in case of additional violations.
The social media giant recently took down accounts, pages and groups involved in a similar sort of behavior in Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Honduras, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
