snoop1130 Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Spammers and scammers using U.S. election to turn profit online, Facebook says By Jack Stubbs FILE PHOTO: The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken December 2, 2019. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Illustration LONDON (Reuters) - Fraudsters from Albania to Vietnam are posting about U.S. politics and the upcoming presidential election to build fake audiences, maximise clicks and make money online, Facebook Inc said on Wednesday. In a new report about so-called "inauthentic behaviour" on its platform, Facebook said the Nov. 3 election had become a common lure to trick users into visiting online stores or websites laden with pay-per-view adverts. "If you are a financially motivated actor who's trying to make money based on clicks, you are going to use whatever content is going to get you eyeballs," Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, told Reuters. "And obviously, there's a lot of attention being paid to what's happening in the United States around the election." After weathering fierce criticism over efforts by political and commercial groups to manipulate its users, Facebook now regularly announces takedowns of online influence operations - such as three networks tied to Russia which it said last month could be used to disrupt the U.S. vote. Gleicher said Wednesday's report differed from previous takedown announcements because it dealt with less threatening activity, which was usually financially rather than politically motivated but often confused with foreign interference attempts. In an interview ahead of the report's release, he said he wanted to make a distinction between the two types of activity ahead of the U.S. vote and next month's election in Myanmar, a country where the military and other groups have repeatedly been caught using social media to spread hate and disinformation. "I want people to be aware of the full range of deception that is happening out there," Gleicher said. "One of the ongoing challenges is people so often and so regularly mistake a financially motivated scheme to sell T-shirts as an influence operation coming from a foreign government." HOT-BUTTON ISSUES There is frequently crossover between the two types of activity, both of which deliberately mislead users with fake accounts and post about "hot-button" issues to build an audience, Facebook said in its report. But the networks suspended on Wednesday were primarily schemes to amplify content for financial gain, such as by using fake accounts to boost follower numbers or by repeatedly posting spam-like content about popular topics. Facebook detailed four examples of networks it had suspended between May and September this year, which it said were operated by unconnected groups from countries including Botswana, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macedonia and the Philippines. One network operated from Albania and posted about U.S. politics to trick people into following pages that directed them to clickbait websites which generated money through adverts. A page in the network ran under the banner, "We need 1Million Trumpers to Make America Great Again." In Myanmar, Facebook said it had suspended 655 pages and 12 groups in August and September that posted about celebrity gossip and local news to attract clicks and views. "A minority of posts from some of these networks and their ad-heavy websites focused on politics in Myanmar, including support for the military and references to ethnic tensions," Facebook said. "We did not see evidence of these networks being politically motivated." -- © Copyright Reuters 2020-10-22 - Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you - Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombat Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 with the way FB new algo's are collecting and handing out penalties for past transgressions that have already been paid for i would think that if they were serious in what they espouse to complain about that a new algo's to sniff out transgressors would be more of a priority...i guess not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargeezr Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 What a world we all live in. Incredible. Geezer 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiochaser Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 I got on a mailing list from one of the American presidential candidates. Emails and website looks legit. I found the website is registered in a country outside the United States. Somehow the emails keep getting through gmail spam filter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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