Cong loses 687 pages, a/cs; IT firm working for BJP too faces heat
Social media giant Facebook on Monday said it has removed a number of pages and accounts linked to individuals associated with an IT cell of the Congress and an Indian IT firm that propagated pro-BJP and pro-RSS contents.
Besides, Facebook has also removed 103 pages, groups and accounts on its platform and Instagram for engaging in similar behaviour as part of a network that originated in Pakistan
While the Facebook removed 687 pages and accounts linked to the Congress as it cracked down on fake accounts and spam, the social media giant also discovered spam activities carried out by Silver Touch, an Indian IT firm which runs the pro-BJP and RSS page “The India Eye”.
It removed 15 pages, groups and accounts linked to the firm. These accounts, it said, were part of a coordinated networks and were removed not based on content or fake news but for “inauthentic behaviour” and for pushing spam.
“They posted about local news and political events, including topics like the Indian Government, the upcoming elections, the BJP and alleged misconduct of political opponents including the INC,” said Facebook head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher.
The Facebook in a statement said these account owners used a combination of authentic and fake accounts to share their content like local news and political events, including topics like the Indian Government, the upcoming elections, the BJP and alleged misconduct of political opponents including the Congress.
Gleicher said Facebook has removed 687 Facebook pages and accounts — the majority of which had already been detected and suspended by its automated systems — that engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” in India and were linked to individuals associated with an IT Cell of the Congress.
He asserted that the removal was not based on the content that was shared by these pages and groups.
“We are constantly working to detect and stop coordinated inauthentic behaviour because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people. We’re taking down these pages and accounts based on their behaviour, not the content they posted,” he said.
While the Congress clarified that no official pages run by it have been taken down, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad described action on the Congress as a “historical” development” but there was no word from the party over the action against the pro-BJP pages by Facebook.
“When an enquiry was carried out, it was found that those individuals were linked to Congress IT cell. The Congress is desperate therefore resorting to these types of dubious means to claim support but people are sure of what they have seen of the Narendra Modi Government,” Prasad said.
With ensuing general elections, the Centre had warned social media platforms of strong action if any attempt was made to influence the country’s electoral process through undesirable means.
Facebook, which has been facing flak globally for instances of user data breach, has been ramping up efforts to ensure that its platforms (that includes WhatsApp and Instagram) aren’t misused to spread misinformation, especially ahead of polls in India.
It has recently started providing details of political ads on its platform in a bid to enhance transparency. It is also strengthening its team of fact checkers and deploying technology tools to flag fake news.