Facebook Head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher announced on October 30th that the social platform has removed three networks of accounts believed to be misleading users throughout eight countries in Africa – Sudan, Libya, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique, the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon. In total, the three networks were comprised of 66 Facebook accounts, 83 Pages, 11 Groups, and 12 Instagram accounts. Together, they netted over 1.1 million followers. Content promoted by the networks centered on support for Russian foreign policies, US-Russian relations, criticism of French and US policies, and support for the Gaddafi regime. Stated Gleicher, “We’re constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people. We’re taking down these Pages, Groups and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they posted.”
