Facebook says it removed accounts linked to foreign meddling in Africa

Details: Facebook says the accounts were linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch with ties to President Vladimir Putin. The Justice Department indicted Prigozhin in connection with Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

• Prigozhin's African efforts targeted Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya.
• The posts typically discussed Russian policies in Africa and criticized French and U.S. policies, Facebook says.

The big picture: "The effort was at times larger in volume than what the Russians deployed in the United States in 2016," the Times writes.

• The Internet Research Agency, which conducted Russian-backed interference in the U.S., posted on Facebook 2,442 times a month on average in 2016. One of the networks in Africa posted 8,900 times just in October, Stanford researchers said, according to the Times.