Facebook is shutting down a series of fake news sites spreading false information about the Bangladesh opposition days before national elections, an official from the social media platform said Thursday.
The sites nine Facebook pages designed to mimic legitimate news outlets, as well as six fake personal accounts spreading anti-opposition propaganda were created by Bangladeshis associated with the government, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, told the AP in an exclusive interview.
The sites would be shut down "for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior" by Thursday evening at the latest, he said by telephone from California.
A threat intelligence company that Facebook worked with determined that the people who created and managed the sites are "associated with the government," he said, declining to provide further details.
The news sites were all designed to look like authentic Facebook news pages, including one operated by the BBC's Bangla-language service and another by the popular Bangladeshi online newspaper bdnews24.com.
The sites would report false information about such things as turmoil in the camp of imprisoned opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
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"These are fake but look like independent news outlets," said Gleicher, noting all were "pro-government and anti-opposition." Facebook began its investigation of the pages in November, and the Thursday shutdowns were "prompted by both external and internal evidence, including a tip from Graphika, a threat intelligence company that we work with," he said.
While the nine pages did not immediately seem to have particularly large reach by Facebook standards Gleicher said one had 11,900 followers it comes at a key time for Bangladesh, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attempting to return to office for a third consecutive time in Dec. 30 elections.
"Frankly, this is a small network involving Bangladesh but this is very important for us" Gleicher said, adding that Facebook "does not want people or organizations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they are doing."