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Go deeper: See the political disinformation Facebook just axed

Photo Illustration: Axios Visuals

Facebook revealed today it has uncovered a new political disinformation campaign on its platform, which included eight Facebook pages and 17 profiles, one of which had 290,000 followers, per Facebook.

Why it matters: Some of the activity displayed in this campaign, including planning events, mimics the activity the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) ran in its efforts to influence the U.S. elections in 2016. Facebook has not yet identified who is behind this most recent campaign, but has removed the pages and accounts.

By the numbers:

  • The accounts created more than 9,500 organic posts, and one posting on Instagram.
  • They paid about $11,000 to run approximately 150 ads on Facebook and Instagram. The ads were created between April 2017 and June 2018.
  • They created about 30 events since May 2017, one of which had 4,700 accounts interested in attended, the largest interest in one of their events.
  • Five legitimate pages unwittingly helped create interest in some of these events, per Facebook.

See some of the sample posts from the pages:

Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook
Courtesy Facebook

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America on borrowed time

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

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Why it matters: Despite being propped up by an extraordinary amount of fiscal stimulus and support from central banks, the state of the global economy remains fragile.

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CIA Director Gina Haspel threatened to resign in early December after President Trump cooked up a hasty plan to install loyalist Kash Patel, a former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), as her deputy, according to three senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the matter.

Why it matters: The revelation stunned national security officials and almost blew up the leadership of the world's most powerful spy agency. Only a series of coincidences — and last minute interventions from Vice President Mike Pence and White House counsel Pat Cipollone — stopped it.

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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

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  3. Vaccine: Battling Black mistrust of the vaccines — "Pharmacy deserts" could become vaccine deserts — Instacart to give $25 to shoppers who get vaccine.
  4. Economy: Unemployment filings explode again — Fed chair: No interest rate hike coming any time soon —  Inflation rose more than expected in December.
  5. World: WHO team arrives in China to investigate pandemic origins.
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