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Facebook bans Israeli company in misinformation crackdown
By: MarketWatch | May 16, 2019

Rare move against private company in a country that’s a U.S. ally

Facebook Inc. said it removed hundreds of fake accounts, pages and groups linked to a commercial entity based in Israel, a rare move against a private operation as the social network tries to stamp out misinformation around global elections.

The company Thursday said it took down a network of 265 accounts, pages and groups, including 65 Facebook and four Instagram accounts, that posted content primarily pertaining to elections and other political activity in Africa, as well as Latin America and Southeast Asia. About 2.8 million accounts followed one or more of the inauthentic pages, Facebook FB, -0.36% said in a blog post. Nine events — one dating back to October 2017 and one scheduled for May — were organized by the pages, though Facebook said it didn’t know if any events took place.

Facebook has been working to remove bad actors from its platforms for years, but the latest incident appears to be the first involving a commercial entity, as opposed to a political or government-backed group, operating in a country that is a U.S. ally.

According to its website, Tel Aviv-based Archimedes Group promises it can “change reality according to our client’s wishes” and says it has taken “significant roles in many political and public campaigns, among them Presidential elections.”

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