Three networks has been suspended by Facebook for an attempt to interfere with eight Africans countries internal politics. The eight affected countries are: Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d Ivoire, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya.
The company on Wednesday defended their action saying the networks aimed at promoting Russian interest in the states through meddling in the internal politics such as the Mozambique and Madagascar elections and criticizing the Francophone and Anglophone policies in the states.
They carried their intentions via 200 fake accounts which attracted followers estimated more than a million in Africa.
The Sudan deceit was carried out via page administrators who displayed various Russian relations with other states e.g Sudanese-Russian relations, US-Russian relations, Russian foreign policy and using their fellow religion serving people - Muslim- to secure their trust. They pleased the Sudanese by also posting about Sudan local news and events in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian financier who has been said was indicted in the US in relation to a campaign targeting the country's 2016 presidential election is the owner of entities tracked by Facebook to be guilty. Another group called the Wagner Group, an organisation of private military contractors were also linked to the list of guilty offenders via the investigation carried out by Standford Internet Observatory, a group working with Facebook in its investigation.
According to the Standford researchers, those guilty worked with native speakers or local natives using their fake and compromised accounts to better disguise their origin and intention.Local Whatsapp and Telegram groups were not spared according to a staff who have spent years in Russia. In some cases they made use of local channels like Sputnik and RT to carry out their campaign.
Last week 50 Instagram accounts were suspended having their origin from Russia and their focus on the US. According to the company, this campaign showed a link to the Internet Regency Agency (IRA), an organisation US prosecutors say was funded by Prigozhin and aimed at influencing the 2016 presidential election.
The company on Wednesday defended their action saying the networks aimed at promoting Russian interest in the states through meddling in the internal politics such as the Mozambique and Madagascar elections and criticizing the Francophone and Anglophone policies in the states.
They carried their intentions via 200 fake accounts which attracted followers estimated more than a million in Africa.
The Sudan deceit was carried out via page administrators who displayed various Russian relations with other states e.g Sudanese-Russian relations, US-Russian relations, Russian foreign policy and using their fellow religion serving people - Muslim- to secure their trust. They pleased the Sudanese by also posting about Sudan local news and events in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian financier who has been said was indicted in the US in relation to a campaign targeting the country's 2016 presidential election is the owner of entities tracked by Facebook to be guilty. Another group called the Wagner Group, an organisation of private military contractors were also linked to the list of guilty offenders via the investigation carried out by Standford Internet Observatory, a group working with Facebook in its investigation.
According to the Standford researchers, those guilty worked with native speakers or local natives using their fake and compromised accounts to better disguise their origin and intention.Local Whatsapp and Telegram groups were not spared according to a staff who have spent years in Russia. In some cases they made use of local channels like Sputnik and RT to carry out their campaign.
Last week 50 Instagram accounts were suspended having their origin from Russia and their focus on the US. According to the company, this campaign showed a link to the Internet Regency Agency (IRA), an organisation US prosecutors say was funded by Prigozhin and aimed at influencing the 2016 presidential election.
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