Facebook announced that they removed 32 pages and accounts tied to a “covert” push to spread divisive political messages ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. The fake accounts have qualities similar to the Russian hackers who meddled in the 2016 election, but Facebook said they could not verify the location of the bad actors.
When Facebook revealed on Tuesday that it had identified and stopped a covert new campaign to spread divisive political messages, it did not reveal some of the most divisive posts, NBC News reported.
A review of some of the deleted pages found efforts to target people with liberal politics or Hispanic and African heritage. One deleted event by a group called "Resisters" called for an occupation of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency; 131 people marked themselves as having attended the June 27 rally.
Facebook declined to identify who was behind the campaign but did say it bore similarities to the efforts by Russia's Internet Research Agency to influence the 2016 election.
"The goal is to create fear in the audience that things are unstable and that democracy and its institutions are failing," said former FBI special agent and MSNBC contributor Clint Watts.
