{"id":35979,"date":"2020-07-09T15:49:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T15:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/31378\/Facebook-Bans-Roger-Stone-Disinformation-Network.html"},"modified":"2020-07-09T15:49:43","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T15:49:43","slug":"facebook-bans-roger-stone-disinformation-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/facebook-bans-roger-stone-disinformation-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Bans Roger Stone Disinformation Network"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Roger Image copyright<\/span> Reuters<\/span> <\/span> <\/figure>\n

Facebook has removed a disinformation network it says was linked to “Roger Stone and his associates”.<\/p>\n

Mr Stone was a long-time political strategist and is an ally of US President Donald Trump. He was convicted of lying to Congress in 2019.<\/p>\n

He has denied involvement with the misinformation network.<\/p>\n

Facebook also said it had identified a network of fake accounts run by employees of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s government.<\/p>\n

The social network released details of four misinformation campaigns ahead of the July edition of its monthly report on co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour.<\/p>\n

“Campaigns like these raise a particularly complex challenge by blurring the line between healthy public debate and manipulation,” Facebook said.<\/p>\n

What was linked to Stone?<\/h2>\n

Facebook said it had removed 54 accounts<\/a>, 50 pages, and four Instagram accounts it had linked to Mr Stone.<\/p>\n

About 260,000 accounts followed one or more of the Facebook pages.<\/p>\n

The inauthentic pages posted about Mr Stone’s websites, books, and media appearances; local politics; and material leaked by Wikileaks ahead of the US 2016 election.<\/p>\n

Image copyright<\/span> Reuters<\/span> <\/span>
Image caption<\/span> Mr Stone was a Trump campaign adviser <\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the fake profiles posed as Florida residents and commented on the posts to make them look more popular.<\/p>\n

In total, those behind the pages spent about $308,000 on Facebook advertising.<\/p>\n

Facebook said several of the inauthentic pages had links to Proud Boys, a white-supremacist hate group it had banned in 2018. <\/p>\n

“Roger Stone’s personal accounts and his branded assets will be coming down as part of this network,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cyber-security policy. “We saw them deeply enmeshed in the activities here.”<\/p>\n

Mr Stone told a New York Times reporter: “I have never owned or controlled any fake Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts.”<\/p>\n