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Facebook takes down fake accounts linked to the Philippines and China

Date: September 24, 2020 Sunil Jha Sunil Jha
Facebook takes down fake accounts linked to the Philippines and China 
Facebook has recently banned two networks of fake accounts originating from the Philippines and China that were involved in spreading government propaganda. As per reports, Facebook has taken down a total of 155 Facebook accounts, 7 Instagram account, nine groups, and eleven pages that were linked to Chinese propaganda. Meanwhile, it has disowned 57 Facebook accounts, 20 Instagram accounts, and 31 pages sourcing from the Philippines, with some allegedly linked with the Philippines police and military.



Reportedly, both of these operations broke the social media firm’s rule against “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Facebook along with Graphika, a social analytics firm that focuses on disinformation, released a detailed report, uncovering the entire operation.  Graphika frequently analyzes these types of activities and gives an in-depth look into such anti-social techniques.



The social analytics firm discovered that the Chinese network used fake faces generated through an AI technique called GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks). These fake faces were further used to elude detection, but sometimes because of common anomalies and quirks, GAN-generated faces can easily be detected. 



Apparently, the Philippine military and police deny any links to these fake Facebook accounts. In separate statements, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said that their official Facebook pages would be active as they follow the necessary “cyber etiquette”.



While PNP said that all opinions and comments of associations, sectoral groups and individual personnel on this matter that are not linked to the organization’s actions are hereby declared as unauthorized and unofficial.



Sources cite that over 100,000 tracked accounts were following pages from Philippines, whereas only 3,000 people were following the American pages.



Speaking on the move, Edgard Arevalo, Spokesman of AFP, said that the military is investigating Facebook’s report and is planning to arrange a meeting with the representatives of the social media giant to get more light on the matter.



Source Credit: https://in.reuters.com/article/facebook-takedowns/facebook-removes-chinese-accounts-active-in-philippines-and-u-s-politics-idINKCN26E09D

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Sunil Jha

Sunil Jha has been a part of the content industry for close to two years. Having previously worked as a voice over artist and sportswriter, he now focuses on writing articles for newsorigins.com, across a slew of topics, ranging from technology to trade and finance. With a business-oriented educational background, Sunil brings forth the expertise of deep-dive research and a strategic approach in his write ups.