U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday foreign nation-states are behind the coordinated disinformation campaign Facebook uncovered.
Nielsen added that she doesn’t know which nation is behind the campaign, but it’s good that “Facebook is taking this very seriously, so they should be commended for what they did today.”
“It also shows, though, that this threat is very real, and Americans need to know that,” she said on Fox News’ “The Daily Briefing.” “The Russians, or whoever it is in this case — we haven’t attributed it — but Russians and other nation-states absolutely are attempting to manipulate us.”
Nielsen told Fox News host Dana Perino she has no reason to believe the Russians weren’t behind the campaign, adding she hasn’t seen the intelligence assessment, The Hill reported.
Facebook removed 32 fake pages and posts on Instagram and Facebook that appear to be behind a coordinated effort to target progressives and left-wing activists in the 2018 mid-term elections, The Daily Caller News Foundation reported Tuesday.
“We’re still in the very early stages of our investigation and don’t have all the facts — including who may be behind this. But we are sharing what we know today given the connection between these bad actors and protests that are planned in Washington next week. We will update this post with more details when we have them, or if the facts we have change,” Facebook said in a statement.
The most popular pages attracted hundreds of thousands of followers and were called “Resisters,” “Black Elevation,” “Mindful Being” and “Aztlan Warriors.” (RELATED: Facebook’s $120 Billion Stock Dive Was The Largest In History)
The “Resisters” pages posted left-wing memes on various subjects such as feminism or calling on President Donald Trump to resign.
Coordinated activity “was also detected around #AbolishICE, a left-wing campaign on social media that seeks to end the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency,” The New York Times reported.
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