Facebook purges more fake accounts from Russia

Facebook said Thursday that it has deleted a number of pages on its platform that were operated by Russian news agency Sputnik and promoted anti-NATO sentiment in eastern European countries.

The company wrote in a blog post that the pages were used to “mislead” users about the content’s source and the pages’ purposes. Facebook says it took down 364 pages that were operated by Russian employees of state news agency Sputnik in central and eastern Europe.

More than 100 pages operated by Russian agents out of Ukraine were also taken down, based on a tip from U.S. law enforcement, the company said.

“The two operations we found originated in Russia, and one was active in a variety of countries while the other was specific to Ukraine,” wrote Facebook’s head of cybersecurity.