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Facebook deletes Russian troll farm's accounts, pages

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Facebook said Tuesday it had removed more accounts operated by the infamous Russian troll farm that allegedly ran a widespread online campaign to interfere with the 2016 president election on the platform.

The big picture: Details of the Internet Research Agency's manipulation efforts on Facebook are still emerging many months after the platform first disclosed it had bought ads during the election, accelerating a reckoning for the company that could end in new regulation.

The gritty details: The company deleted 70 accounts from Facebook and another 65 from its subsidiary Instagram that were to "controlled" by the Russian troll farm.

  • It also shut down 138 pages associated with the organization and removed advertisements those pages had run.
  • The company said the content on the pages was largely "targeted either at people living in Russia or Russian-speakers around the world including from neighboring countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine."

What they're saying: "We removed this latest set of Pages and accounts solely because they were controlled by the IRA — not based on the content," said Alex Stamos, a top security official at the company, in a blog post. "This included commentary on domestic and international political issues, the promotion of Russian culture and tourism as well as debate on more everyday issues."

What's next: Stamos said Facebook will let users check to see if they followed the Russian pages.

Go deeper

Margaret Harding McGill, Sara Fischer
4 hours ago - Technology

Tech scrambles to derail inauguration threats

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Tech companies are sharing more information with law enforcement in a frantic effort to prevent violence around the inauguration, after the government was caught flat-footed by the Capitol siege.

Between the lines: Tech knows it will be held accountable for any further violence that turns out to have been planned online if it doesn't act to stop it.

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Dave Lawler, author of World
4 hours ago - World

Uganda's election: Museveni declared winner, Wine claims fraud

Wine rejected the official results of the election. Photo: Sumy Sadruni/AFP via Getty

Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of a sixth presidential term on Saturday, with official results giving him 59% to 35% for Bobi Wine, the singer-turned-opposition leader.

Why it matters: This announcement was predictable, as the election was neither free nor fair and Museveni had no intention of surrendering power after 35 years. But Wine — who posed a strong challenged to Museveni, particularly in urban areas, and was beaten and arrested during the campaign — has said he will present evidence of fraud. The big question is whether he will mobilize mass resistance in the streets.

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Jonathan Swan, Zachary Basu
5 hours ago - Politics & Policy
Off the Rails

Episode 1: A premeditated lie lit the fire

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Beginning on election night 2020 and continuing through his final days in office, Donald Trump unraveled and dragged America with him, to the point that his followers sacked the U.S. Capitol with two weeks left in his term. Axios takes you inside the collapse of a president with a special series.

Episode 1: Trump’s refusal to believe the election results was premeditated. He had heard about the “red mirage” — the likelihood that early vote counts would tip more Republican than the final tallies — and he decided to exploit it.

"Jared, you call the Murdochs! Jason, you call Sammon and Hemmer!”

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