Facebook announced that it has removed accounts made within its platform that are deemed involved in influencing the mid-term US election, according to the company's recent press release.
According to reports, the social media website has banned a total of 32 accounts engaged in "coordinated inauthentic behavior" with the intent of manipulating the voting public ahead of the mid-term US elections in November.
As further stated by Facebook, the investigation on the matter is still in its "very early" stages. The company has yet to pinpoint responsible people or persons operating behind the suspicious pages.
From its setup, there were already a total of 9,500 Facebook posts made by the accounts, to even include those posts made on Instagram.
Contrary to what many would assume, these shady accounts are actually well-funded. According to the firm, the pages were running about 150 ads on Facebook and on Instagram, with a total cost of around USD$11,000.
Despite the on-going efforts by Facebook to stiffen its security measures, they still couldn't easily track down the perpetrators who did all their operations by way of "VPNs (virtual private network - an encrypted connection protocol) and internet phone services."
The suspects were also thought to be utilizing services from "paid third parties" to run the coercive ads.
Facebook went on to specify that much of the activities done by these questionable FB accounts are akin to what the Russian-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) did in the past.
Some of the most popular accounts cited by the tech firm were Black Elevation, Mindful Being, Aztlan Warriors, and Resisters.
Resisters, in particular, had been seen orchestrating a public event which they call "No Unite the Right 2 - DC. The protest is set to take place on August 10 in Washington.
Facebook had already removed the event prior to the posting of the company's press release. Interested individuals who were signed up for the said occasion were also debriefed on what really happened.
The company, which recently suffered a huge slump in its Q2 2018 earnings report, had informed federal authorities, members of the US Congress, and law-enforcement agencies on its recent findings.
Congressman Adam Schiff of the Republican party offered his take on the recent news saying that this current quandary is proof that Russia is still meddling on US affairs, and they do this by way of weaponizing social media platforms, such as Facebook.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, is opting for the US government to pursue retaliatory actions against responsible parties.
