Facebook downs hundreds of accounts, groups linked to Indonesian syndicate

MANILA, Philippines – Facebook on Thursday, January 31 announced it had removed 207 Facebook Pages, 800 Facebook accounts, 546 Facebook Groups, and 208 Instagram accounts linked to a syndicate misrepresenting its activities on the social media platform.

In a post, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said the various social media pages, accounts, and groups were linked to the Saracen Group, and the group had misled others “about who they were and what they were doing.”

Due to the actions, Gleicher added the company banned the organization from the platform.

Around 170,000 people followed at least one of the offending Facebook Pages, with approximately 65,000 following at least one of the misleading Instagram accounts.

Facebook added some of the removed content came from the following:

• Permadi Arya (Page)
• Kata Warga (Page)
• Darknet ID (Page)
• berita hari ini (Group)
• ac milan indo (Group)

Gleicher added the Saracen group was removed not due to the content of their posts, but because of the behavior of Saracen on Facebook, which went against company policy. “In this case, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action,” he added.

The report follows other similar actions by Facebook in other countries, including the Philippines.  – Rappler.com