Facebook declares war on Russia's ‘troll factory’ Here's how the numbers break down
On September 6, Facebook announced the results of its investigation into potential efforts to use its platform to influence the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The company says it uncovered hundreds of fake accounts and communities managed from Russia with the help of a so-called “troll factory” that paid for promoted content over the course of two years. Facebook blocked all the groups identified in this study, but a source close to Russia's Internet Research Agency claims that 20 percent of its communities on the network remain active. Here are the main conclusions and results of Facebook's investigation:
- 470 fake accounts were launched from Russia.
- These accounts bought 3,000 promoted posts for a total of $100,000.
- Network administrators blocked 25 public groups on Facebook and 32 accounts on Instagram (and Twitter says it's also blocked 50 accounts believed to be from Russia's “troll factory”).
- The total audience for these accounts and communities was more than 5 million subscribers.
Russian text by Mikhail Zelensky, translation by Kevin Rothrock
Photo on front page: Jeff Chiu / AP / Scanpix / LETA
Russia's “troll factory”
The Internet Research Agency, also know as “Russia's troll factory,” employs paid writers to spread online comments and posts intended to “influence” Internet users. The agency has been tied to Evgeny Prigozhin, a billionaire restaurateur known as Vladimir Putin’s “favorite chef.”