The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, a watchdog, reported on May 21, that its analysts found five pages that pose as legitimate media, but are set up to disseminate messages favorable to the ruling party on Facebook.
The watchdog claimed that “fake media” pages are closely linked with each other and were re-activated in January 2020, shortly after Facebook removed hundreds of pages for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” in December 2019. They also survived Facebook’s take-down of the network of partisan accounts in early May.
ISFED says these accounts pose as real media, but exist only on Facebook, frequently copying other news agencies’ news to create an impression of legitimate operation. However, they often pose fake or manipulated messages in support of the ruling party’s views, which are then “boosted” – advertised to wider audiences.
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