Facebook removes fake accounts tied to France, Egypt

Facebook has removed several fake accounts, Pages and Groups tied to France and Egypt, including some posts that spread misinformation around novel coronavirus pandemic.

In France, Facebook removed 51 Facebook accounts, 9 Pages and 9 Instagram accounts originated in the Sete region.

"We also removed 81 Facebook accounts, 82 Pages, 1 Group and 76 Instagram accounts from Egypt. This activity focused on Arabic-speaking audiences and some Pages focused specifically on Egypt and the Gulf region," said Nathaniel Gleicher who heads cybersecurity policy at Facebook.

The investigation found links to Maat, a marketing firm in Egypt.

Facebook also removed a network of 49 Facebook accounts, 69 Pages and 85 Instagram accounts in Russia, Ghana and Nigeria.

"We're constantly working to find and stop coordinated campaigns that seek to manipulate public debate across our apps. In the past year alone, we've taken down over 50 networks worldwide for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavioor (CIB), including ahead of major democratic elections," informed Gleicher.

As part of its continuous enforcement, using both automated and manual detection, Facebook removed 206 Facebook accounts, 435 Instagram accounts, 74 Pages, and 1 Group connected to networks.