Facebook takes down Roger Stone-affiliated accounts, pages

Facebook said Wednesday that it removed a network of more than 100 pages and accounts associated with former Trump adviser Roger Stone after determining that they engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” focused on audiences in the U.S.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, said in a blog post that the network attempted to deceive the platform’s users on issues related to local politics in Florida, Stone and hacked materials released by WikiLeaks ahead of the 2016 presidential election. People behind the activity used fake accounts to pose as Florida residents and make it appear that the content was more popular than it was, among other things.

Stone, a former Republican operative, was sentenced to 40 months in prison in February after being convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing a legal proceeding. His charges stemmed from former special counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The network linked to Stone and his associates consisted of 54 Facebook accounts, 54 Facebook pages and four accounts on Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook. Several of the pages were also linked to the Proud Boys, a far-right group banned from Facebook in 2018.

The network analysis firm Graphika also released a report concluding that Stone’s personal accounts were part of the network, whose main purpose was to “amplify” other pages and Stone’s work. The report said activity among the accounts and pages suggested they engaged in coordinated harassment and incitement in some cases.

Stone’s personal Facebook and Instagram pages are no longer active.

Facebook said that the network was most active between 2015 and 2017 and that it had been largely dormant in the following years. The pages had cumulatively garnered about 260,000 followers on Facebook and about 61,500 on Instagram. The network spent more than $300,000 on advertising.

A sample of the content shared by the accounts included posts about Stone, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and FBI investigations.