Facebook, Twitter Remove 13 Russia-Linked Accounts

"We removed a small network of 13 Facebook accounts and two Pages linked to individuals associated with past activity by the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA)," the statement said. "This activity focused primarily on the US, UK, Algeria and Egypt, in addition to other English-speaking countries and countries in the Middle East and North Africa."
Facebook investigated the matter after a tip from the FBI and found that the fake accounts were used to direct people to a fake news site called PeaceData, the statement said.

Some of the fake accounts posed as news editors from various countries, including the United States, that recruited freelance journalists to write on global news and current events that targeted left-leaning readers on issues like social and racial justice, President Donald Trump's policies, the Biden-Harris campaign, US military policies in Africa and more, the statement said.

The network was able to garner an audience of about 14,000 accounts and spent about $480 on advertisement on Facebook paid for mostly in US dollars, the statement said.
Twitter said in a separate statement that it has removed five accounts that it says are linked to "Russian state actors" for platform manipulation. These accounts are also associated with the news website PeaceData.

Tweets from the Russian-linked accounts were low quality and received, if any, few likes or Retweets, the statement said. The company added that the accounts had little impact on Twitter and were identified and removed quickly.

Russia has repeatedly denied accusations of interfering in the US political system, saying such acts run contrary to the principles of Moscow's foreign policy.