Facebook uncovers political influence campaign ahead of midterms

Facebook yesterday announced it shut down more than 30 fake pages and accounts that were part of a political influence campaign to affect the U.S. midterm elections.

Facebook officials said the "bad actor" accounts could not be tied to Russia despite hints the country may be involved.

Officials with the social media network did say "some of the activity is consistent" with that of the Saint Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm that ran fake Facebook accounts ahead of the 2016 election.

"We have found evidence of connections between these accounts and previously identified IRA accounts, but we don't believe the evidence is strong enough at this time to make public attribution to the IRA," Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos said during a conference call with reporters. "We can't say for sure if this is the IRA with improved capabilities or a different organization."

Read more from AFP.