Voice of America
09 Jul 2020, 05:05 GMT+10
SAO PAULO - Social media giant Facebook said Wednesday that it had removed dozens of accounts linked to supporters or employees of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as part of an investigation into the spread of false news online.
Nathaniel Gleicher, the company's head of cybersecurity policy, said in a statement that 73 Facebook and Instagram accounts, 14 pages and one group had been removed. Brazilian courts have been investigating the spread of false news in connection with Bolsonaro.
There was no immediate comment from the presidential office about Facebook's action.
Facebook's executive said the accounts were linked to the Social Liberal Party, which Bolsonaro left last year after winning the 2018 presidential election, and to employees of the president; two of his sons, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro and congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro; and two other lawmakers.
"This network consisted of several clusters of connected activity that relied on a combination of duplicate and fake accounts - some of which had been detected and disabled by our automated systems - to evade enforcement, create fictitious personas posing as reporters, post content, and manage pages masquerading as news outlets," Gleicher said in the statement.
He added that some of the content posted by the accounts had already been taken down for community standards violations, including hate speech.
Gleicher said about 883,000 accounts followed one or more of the Bolsonaro linked pages and an additional 917,000 followed one of more of the Instagram accounts that were removed.
Get a daily dose of International Technology news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to International Technology.
More InformationSAN FRANCISCO, California: Under pressure from European regulators, Apple has revamped its App Store policies in the EU, introducing...
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], July 1 (ANI): NMDC, India's largest iron ore producer, marked a significant milestone with the inauguration...
YINCHUAN, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday reached a major milestone in desertification control by completing a barrier belt along...
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], June 29 (ANI): Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 medalist Lovlina Borgohain eased past Punjab's Krisha Verma...
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], June 29 (ANI): Former youth world champion Ankushita Boro showcased her class on Day 2 of the Elite...
Panaji (Goa) [India], June 29 (ANI): The 'Raj Bhavan Annadhan' scheme was officially launched on Sunday at Old Durbar Hall, Raj Bhavan,...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that he was halting trade discussions with Canada due to its decision...
FRANKFURT, Germany: Germany has become the latest country to challenge Chinese AI firm DeepSeek over its data practices, as pressure...
Washington DC [US], July 2 (ANI): As the US Senate passed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking...
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 2 (ANI): A two-person bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) observed Royal Challengers...
Spanish Fork [US], July 2 (ANI): The ISKCON Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, renowned globally for hosting the annual...
New Delhi [India], July 1 (ANI): As the Digital India Mission completed 10 years on Tuesday, BJP leader Pradeep Bhandari drew contrast...