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Facebook said Tuesday it had removed nearly five dozen American user accounts behind a Russian disinformation operation aimed at publishing news for left-leaning American readers.
“In August, we removed three networks of accounts, Pages and Groups,” the company said in a press release. “Two of them — from Russia and the US — targeted people outside of their country, and another from Pakistan focused on both domestic audiences in Pakistan and also in India.”
Facebook said the accounts — including 13 in Russia, 55 in the United States, and 453 in Pakistan — were linked to the Internet Research Agency, which became notorious as the Russian “troll farm” that used networks of fake accounts to push disinformation to American voters during the 2016 election. A grand jury in 2018 indicted 13 Russian nationals connected to the operation.
Peace Data — the fake news website at the fore of the campaign — describes itself as a “global news organization” focused on raising “awareness about corruption, environmental crisis, abuse of power, armed conflicts, activism, and human rights.” Researchers said the website publishes news stories intended to appeal to a left-wing audience, authored by a mixture of fake names and real Western journalists recruited on websites that connect employers with freelance workers.
“They DM’d me on Twitter and said hey do you wanna write for us, we’ll give you $200 an article,” one journalist — who asked not to be identified — told NBC News. “I lost my job during COVID and was pretty desperate to earn money just to pay rent.”
As of Tuesday, stories on the website included one that suggested President Donald Trump was attempting “to kill a 250-year-old institution” with his grievances about the Postal Service. Another suggested U.S. “workers” and minorities “continuously face housing insecurity.”
Twitter similarly announced Tuesday it had suspended five accounts related to Peace Data. Facebook said it expected “influence operations” by foreign entities continue, noting it had also removed 72 Instagram accounts associated with the effort.
William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in a statement last month Americans should be particularly aware of efforts by China, Russia and Iran to influence the election.
“We assess that China prefers that President Trump … does not win reelection,” Evanina wrote. He added Russia was more likely to favor Trump, while Iran would seek to use “online influence” operations to “divide the country.”
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