Facebook To Shut Down Coordinated Groups Of Real-User Accounts Engaging In Harmful Activities

Facebook will reportedly shut down coordinated groups of real-user accounts engaging in certain harmful activities.

FACEBOOK — The social media giant will reportedly shut down coordinated groups of real-user accounts engaging in certain harmful activities.

Facebook will reportedly shut down coordinated groups of real-user accounts engaging in certain harmful activities.
Photo source: 9to5Mac

Facebook told Reuters that the company will shut down coordinated groups of real-user accounts engaging in certain harmful activities on its platform using the same strategy its security teams took against campaigns using fake accounts as the company was taking a more aggressive approach on the matter.

Reuters reported that Facebook’s new approach used the tactics usually taken by the company’s security teams for wholesale shutdowns of networks engaged in influence operations that used false accounts in order to manipulate public debate.

It could have major implications for how Facebook handled political and other coordinated movements breaking its rules, at a time when the company’s approach to abuses on its platforms was under heavy scrutiny from civil society groups and global lawmakers.

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Reuters also cited two types of incidents wherein Facebook might target “groups of coordinated real accounts that systemically break its rules”:

  • mass reporting where users falsely reported another user’s account or content to get it shut down for policy violations
  • brigading where users might coordinate to target a user through mass posts or comments.

The Verge reported that some of those incidents could involve state-sponsored groups that were similar to government-backed “troll farms” but used participants’ real Facebook accounts and others could be independent — coordinated by groups of fans or political movements.

In a related change, the social media giant said last Thursday that the company would be taking the same type of approach to campaigns of real users that caused “coordinated social harm” on and off its platforms.

According to Facebook, “coordinated social harm” campaigns typically involved networks of primarily authentic users who organized to systematically violate its policies to cause harm on or off the platform.

You can visit this link if you want to know more about “coordinated social harm”.

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