Following complaints, Facebook has shut down a popular Ukrainian-run page that appeared to echo the Russian social media effort to swing the 2016 U.S. election for Donald Trump .
The I Love America Facebook page boasted 1.1 million followers with content operated by 10 people based in Ukraine, journalist Judd Legum reported in his newsletter Popular Information . The pages pro-Trump messages soared in recent weeks.
Those posts apparently jumped when Trump was pressuring Ukraines president to investigate unfounded accusations that former Vice President Joe Biden had attempted to block a corruption probe into a Ukrainian company linked to his son. Trumps apparent attempt to use his presidential power to harm the Democrat who could face him in 2020 has sparked calls for the presidents impeachment .
Other pages linked to I Love America and created in the last few months collectively generated tens of millions of interactions with people who liked, shared or commented on a post, outpacing several of Americas largest news sites, Legum noted.
I Love America often recycled memes used by Russias Internet Research Agency , which established fake Facebook pages to amass millions of followers and boost Trump in the 2016 election before they were finally shut down.
The same images that Russias IRA posted also appeared on the I Love America page. They were often transformed into clickbait videos by using a camera to pan over or zoom in on photos, noted Renee DiResta, a research manager at Stanford Universitys Internet Observatory .
Another thing in here that was interesting was the conversion of IRA memes (among others) to video form. The videos pan or zoom on the meme, then the frame changes to ask audiences to like/share. A number of the videos had substantial engagement. pic.twitter.com/8xiNyXbyqP
Renee DiResta (@noUpside) September 23, 2019","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Renee DiResta","author_url":"https://twitter.com/noUpside","cache_age":86400,"description":"Another thing in here that was interesting was the conversion of IRA memes (among others) to video form. The videos pan or zoom on the meme, then the frame changes to ask audiences to like/share. 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Trump","slug":"donald-trump","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/donald-trump","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/donald-trump","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/donald-trump"},"relegenceId":2789214,"department":{"name":"Latest News","slug":"politics-news"},"section":{"title":"Politics","slug":"politics"},"topic":{"title":"Donald Trump","slug":"donald-trump","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://action.news/news/topic/donald-trump"},{"name":"Russia","slug":"russia","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/russia","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/russia","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/russia"},"relegenceId":3691301,"department":{"name":"Latest News","slug":"politics-news"},"section":{"title":"World 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News","slug":"world-news"},"topic":{"title":"Ukraine","slug":"ukraine","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://action.news/news/topic/ukraine"},{"name":"Internet Research Agency","slug":"internet-research-agency","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/internet-research-agency","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/internet-research-agency","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/internet-research-agency"},"url":"https://action.news/topic/internet-research-agency"}],"isLiveblogLive":null,"isLiveblog":false,"cetUnit":"buzz_body","bodyAds":["\r\n\r\n","\r\n\r\n","\r\n\r\n"],"adCount":0},"isCollectionEmbed":false,"enhancements":{}}">Another thing in here that was interesting was the conversion of IRA memes (among others) to video form. The videos pan or zoom on the meme, then the frame changes to ask audiences to like/share. A number of the videos had substantial engagement. pic.twitter.com/8xiNyXbyqP
Renee DiResta (@noUpside) September 23, 2019
DiResta noted on Twitter that the posts appeared to be more commercial than government-run, but said she was surprised by the amount of traffic they received.
The network of pages linked to I Love America featured posts on patriotism, Jesus and cute puppies.
3. \"I Love America\" is part of a complex network of Ukrainian-run Facebook pages that seek to amass large audiences and then funnel them to rabidly pro-Trump pages.
These include pages featuring cute dogs and Jesushttps://t.co/0MRNxVJbUJ pic.twitter.com/1CSewIkgnh
3. "I Love America" is part of a complex network of Ukrainian-run Facebook pages that seek to amass large audiences and then funnel them to rabidly pro-Trump pages.
Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 23, 2019
These include pages featuring cute dogs and Jesushttps://t.co/0MRNxVJbUJ pic.twitter.com/1CSewIkgnh
A Facebook representative initially told Legum on Sunday that the company would not take down the page or others linked to it because it didnt violate the companys policies, including one barring coordinated inauthentic behavior to mislead followers.
But when the story began to circulate Monday, Facebook took action.
We are removing these pages for violating our policies against spam and fake accounts and are continuing to investigate for any further violations, Facebook spokesperson Joe Osborn said in an email to HuffPost.
The company removed a total of nine pages, including some featuring dogs, Jesus and a page titled God Bless Donald Trump and God Bless America, The Washington Post reported .
Facebook said it had not detected links to a government actor but is continuing its investigation.
David Carroll, an associate professor of media design at the New School in New York, tweeted Monday that it was surprising Facebook hadnt automated the detection of recycled memes from Moscows IRA to immediately crack down on copycats who might be following Russias playbook.
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Youd think Facebook would have fingerprinted the RU IRA memes to automate their detection when recycled on new pages with huge audiences in the US but operated out of Ukraine. But no. @JuddLegums latest discovery is troubling leading up to 2020. https://t.co/A9HBQRvseA
David Carroll (@profcarroll) September 23, 2019","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"David Carroll ","author_url":"https://twitter.com/profcarroll","cache_age":86400,"description":"Youd think Facebook would have fingerprinted the RU IRA memes to automate their detection when recycled on new pages with huge audiences in the US but operated out of Ukraine. But no. @JuddLegums latest discovery is troubling leading up to 2020. https://t.co/A9HBQRvseA David Carroll (@profcarroll) September 23, 2019\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"David Carroll on 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Trump","slug":"donald-trump","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/donald-trump","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/donald-trump","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/donald-trump"},"relegenceId":2789214,"department":{"name":"Latest News","slug":"politics-news"},"section":{"title":"Politics","slug":"politics"},"topic":{"title":"Donald Trump","slug":"donald-trump","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://action.news/news/topic/donald-trump"},{"name":"Russia","slug":"russia","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/russia","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/russia","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/russia"},"relegenceId":3691301,"department":{"name":"Latest News","slug":"politics-news"},"section":{"title":"World 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News","slug":"world-news"},"topic":{"title":"Ukraine","slug":"ukraine","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://action.news/news/topic/ukraine"},{"name":"Internet Research Agency","slug":"internet-research-agency","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/internet-research-agency","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/internet-research-agency","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/internet-research-agency"},"url":"https://action.news/topic/internet-research-agency"}],"isLiveblogLive":null,"isLiveblog":false,"cetUnit":"buzz_body","bodyAds":["\r\n\r\n","\r\n\r\n","\r\n\r\n"],"adCount":0},"isCollectionEmbed":false,"enhancements":{}}">Youd think Facebook would have fingerprinted the RU IRA memes to automate their detection when recycled on new pages with huge audiences in the US but operated out of Ukraine. But no. @JuddLegum s latest discovery is troubling leading up to 2020. https://t.co/A9HBQRvseA
David Carroll (@profcarroll) September 23, 2019
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