Facebook has taken down several pages, groups, and accounts from India and Pakistan for violating its policies and participating in inauthentic behavior or spam. The social network has clarified that the 687 takedowns were not because of the kind of content posted by these pages but inauthentic behavior and the bid to deceive users about their identity.
Facebook said that in its investigation, it found individuals who use fake accounts and join various groups to disseminate their content and increase engagement. Their posts included local news and criticism of political opponents.
While the people behind such pages attempted to conceal their identities, our reviewer found it was connected to individuals associated with an INC (Indian National Congress) IT Cell – Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy
In the case of the pages from Pakistan, these were linked to employees of the Inter-Services Public Relations Pakistan (ISPR), which is the media wing of the Pakistan military. The fourth set of takedowns was not linked to any particular political party but to individuals promoting spam and sharing malware links on the social network.