Facebook Shuts Down An Israeli Firm's Effort To Influence Politics In West Africa

Facebook today said it detected dozens of Facebook accounts that were engaging in election interference and other forms of public manipulation via news and social media, directed primarily at West African countries. What's especially noteworthy about this announcement is the source. Israeli commercial entity Archimedes Group was behind the behavior. The Verge reports: The goal ostensibly was to have some type of effect on local elections and the political atmosphere, although Facebook says it can't divine the exact intentions of the group and there is no indication that it was in any way linked to the Israeli government. Although it was centered on West African countries like Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, and Niger, Facebook also detected activity aimed at users in Angola, Tunisia, and parts of Southeast Asia and South America.

As a result, Facebook says it's shut down 65 Facebook accounts, 161 pages, 23 groups, and 12 events. It also detected and shut down four Instagram accounts related to the effort. It's also banned Archimedes Group and all of its subsidiaries, and Facebook sent a cease and desist letter to the company. On its website, Archimedes Group's tagline is, "Winning elections worldwide." It advertises itself as a kind of consultant for social media marketing related to elections, writing, "When approaching a client's challenge, we address all possible facets relating to it. We then formulate a concise yet comprehensive solution that will use every tool and take every advantage available in order to change reality according to our client's wishes." In a blog post, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, wrote: "The people behind this network used fake accounts to run Pages, disseminate their content and artificially increase engagement. They also represented themselves as locals, including local news organizations, and published allegedly leaked information about politicians. The Page administrators and account owners frequently posted about political news, including topics like elections in various countries, candidate views and criticism of political opponents."

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[guruevi]

It's a lobbying company, it's the interests of whoever pays them better.

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[Bigjeff5]

It's a bit more than a lobbying company.

They're basically doing what Russia did in the 2016 elections, making fake facebook accounts and running a fake grassroots movement to try to alter local opinion.

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[K. S. Kyosuke]

Are you talking about Facebook now, or the Israeli company?

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[Anonymous Coward]

Not everybody in Israel is Jewish.

Not everyone is Russia is a KGB agent.

They are one of the most multicultural states

...with an official State religion, where the 20% Arabs population are second class citizens, for instance.

and the only one with freedom of religion in that area of the world.

Freedom to be a second class citizen. Very multicultural indeed.

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[Anonymous Coward]

How come it is ok for state to create jewish settlements on arab owned lands? Or to kill the arab kids by tanks who throw stones at them? It is as if the Israelians tried to repeat and pass on all the evil deeds Hitler did to them.

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[Anonymous Coward]

where the 20% Arabs population are second class citizens, for instance

They are? Is that why there are Arabs in the Knesset, and there are mosques throughout Israel?

Don't play the naive. There have been plenty of societies in history where there were synagogues and sometimes even Jewish political representation, but the Jews were still officially second-class citizens. And in Israel they are, because it has recently been declared a Jewish state, see https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-44881554

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[Munich Munchkin]

The thing is, that Israel is not really trying to be compared to Iran or Saudi Arabia, and be careful with encouraging that comparison. Israel actually wants to be compared to a Western Liberal Democracy. Many Western Liberal Democracies would like Israel to be one too. Personally, I'd like to see a time when Israel joins the EU. However, Israel cannot enact some of its policies and not expect to be criticised against that standard. It should not, and I do not agree that it does, have anything to do with th

Facebook is any semite

[Anonymous Coward]

Shocking!

Free Speech Needed

[Jim Sadler]

Yes, in a wild west type of net so nasty things will occur including rebellions and advocacy of violence. The catch is that nations like Venezuela need revolution and people getting together to overthrow the government is a wonderful thing. I'm not so certain that in the US the people will not have to revolt in the near future due to our corrupt government. We need to be very careful before disallowing even the most vile and violent free speech.

Brazil too

[TheDarkMaster]

They are "working" in Brazil too, with more success so far.

Who are they working for?

[sabbede]

If it's politicians engaged in campaigning, what's the problem? Is Facebook silencing political speech? If so, they'd better just issue a flat ban on all political activity on the platform, or they will be the ones behind any "interference".

And why can't Facebook "can't divine the exact intentions of the group"? Have they tried asking?

African Democracy Hacking

[retroworks]

As someone who spends a lot of time in Africa since 1984, my suspicion is that African autocrats are the ones with the money and the interest in twisting what has become a pretty nice progress in peaceful elections and orderly transition during the past decade. From the election of Africa's first woman president in Liberia, to the two orderly presidential elections in Africa's largest democracy (Nigeria), there is a lot of positive traction which is unfortunately not getting much coverage in the press. The