Facebook, Twitter remove fake pro-Trump accounts

Facebook and Twitter on Friday removed a network of fake accounts linked to the pro-Trump conspiracy website The Epoch Times.

Facebook in a blog post said it had connected the accounts to U.S.-based media company The BL, which in turn has ties to The Epoch Times.

That group, with ties to the Chinese spiritual group Falun Gong, has used social media to push for President Trump’s reelection, NBC News first reported in August.

The hundreds of accounts were operated by individuals in Vietnam and the U.S., many of whom used artificial intelligence to generate profiles to infiltrate groups and dodge Facebook enforcement.

The individuals then pretended to be Americans and posted anti-impeachment and pro-Trump messages, often linking back to The BL’s website.

The accounts were removed because of the way they operated — coordinated inauthentic behavior, misrepresentation and violating spam rules — rather than the content they posted.

Facebook removed 610 Facebook accounts, 89 pages, 156 groups and 72 Instagram accounts.

Roughly 55 million individuals followed at least one of the accounts and an estimated 92,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts, showing a broad reach. For context, Trump himself has 26 million followers.