Mumbai, April 1: Ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 in India, Facebook on Monday removed 687 pages and accounts linked to the Indian National Congress (INC). The social media platform said this is done because of 'coordinated inauthentic behaviour' that was observed on the site and such pages and accounts were taken down based on their behaviour. According to reports, Facebook said its investigation found that individuals used fake accounts and joined various groups to disseminate their content and increase engagement. Facebook Under Lens For 'Covering Up' Data Scandal.

In India, Facebook spotted 138 Pages and 549 Facebook accounts that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour. The release added saying that in terms of followers, about 206,000 accounts followed one or more of these pages.

ANI Tweet on Instances For Which Pages Have Been Removed

"We removed 687 Facebook Pages and accounts- the majority of which had already been detected and suspended by our automated systems- that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior in India and were linked to individuals associated with an IT Cell of the Indian National Congress (INC)", Facebook said in its release. Facebook Data Breach: Social Media Giant Rebuilds Management After Privacy Scandal.

What is Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Enforcement

  1. The operations Facebook found to be engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior were two distinct sets of activity in India and one network in Pakistan.

  2. Facebook said it didn’t find any links between the campaigns they removed today, but they used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing.

Facebook said the posts included local news and criticism of political opponents such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a report by Reuters said.  In its release, Facebook informed that it removed 15 Facebook Pages, Groups and accounts that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior in India and were linked to individuals associated with an Indian IT firm, Silver Touch. Facebook Mistakenly Deleted CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Old Posts - Report.

Facebook said it is constantly working to detect and stop coordinated inauthentic behavior because its didn't want its services to be used to manipulate people. "In each case detailed below, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action", the press release added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 01, 2019 02:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).