All these accounts are cited with spreading misinformation, thus taken down in the last two days. Also, Meta said attacks against the critical personnel accounts are imminent, so they warned them to be secure.
Taking Down Fake Russian Accounts
The good part of social media platforms in any critical situation is to manage the information flow. As they’re widely held responsible for users’ content shared on their platform, they actively look out for infringing and harmful content and act on them immediately. In this pursuit, Meta acted promptly on the misinformation prevailing on its platforms, as per a late Sunday brief coming from the company’s security heads. As per David Agranovich, Meta’s Director of Threat Disruption, they have removed about 40 accounts in the last two days on Facebook and Instagram that were spreading misinformation about Ukraine. These accounts have a growing following (like around 4,000 followers and Facebook and about 500 on Instagram) when they were acted upon, and are said to be sharing fake news sites that publish topics of “undermining the Ukrainian government and boosting the activities of Russian actors”. Posing to be serving news from Kyiv, and in different roles like a former aviation engineer, as the author of a scientific publication, or news editors, these fake accounts are treated as harmful for the community’s mind. Also, Meta warned that some prominent people in this situation like the Ukrainian journalists, military officials, and other public figures are targeted with hacking attempts in recent days. Warning them to be vigilant, Meta said it’s constantly monitoring the situation in Ukraine to be senstive whenever needed.
