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Facebook blocks 115 accounts for 'inauthentic behavior'

PCmag
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FILE - In this May 16, 2012, file photo, the Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile device in Philadelphia. The news that Facebook's Android app has been collecting call and text histories is yet another black eye for the social media giant. The social network acknowledged on Sunday, March 25, 2018, that it began uploading call and text logs from phones running Google's Android system in 2015 - first via its Messenger app and later through an option in Facebook Lite, a stripped-down version of its main app. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - In this May 16, 2012, file photo, the Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile device in Philadelphia. (Associated Press)

Ahead of the Midterm Elections, Facebook on Monday announced it has blocked 115 accounts for "coordinated inauthentic behavior."

Thirty of the now-blocked accounts were on Facebook itself and the remaining 85 were on Instagram. Facebook said it's still in the very early stages of its investigation and hinted that more accounts may be involved.

Facebook first caught wind of a problem on Sunday night when US law enforcement notified the social media company about "online activity that they recently discovered and which they believe may be linked to foreign entities," the company's Head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher wrote in the announcement.

At this point, details of the operation are scant, but Gleicher said the company made the announcement to inform people before the election. Facebook is still investigating the issue, and does not yet know whether the accounts in question were linked to the Internet Research Agency, the notorious Russian troll farm which stirred up trouble during the 2016 election, or other foreign entities.

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"Almost all the Facebook Pages associated with these accounts appear to be in the French or Russian languages, while the Instagram accounts seem to have mostly been in English — some were focused on celebrities, others political debate," Gleicher wrote.

The announcement came just 10 days after Facebook revealed it took down 82 pages, groups, and accounts originating from Iran that were pumping out political propaganda—usually in internet meme form—to one million users in the US and the UK. The misinformation campaign was partly focused on blasting President Trump and the Republican Party through the use of fake accounts pretending to be US and UK citizens.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.