You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

Facebook Pulls Hundreds of Propaganda Accounts Linked to PR Firms Apparently, fake news has become big business for PR and marketing firms.

By Mariella Moon

entrepreneur daily

This story originally appeared on Engadget

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI | Getty Images

Facebook has removed 211 accounts on its main platform, 107 Pages, 43 Groups and 87 Instagram accounts for inauthentic behavior. More importantly, the social network's investigation revealed that their efforts were coordinated and that they were all linked to PR firms in the UAE (Charles Communications), Egypt (Flexell) and Nigeria (MintReach). The company said in its announcement that these takedowns are part of its ongoing investigation into coordinated inauthentic behavior in the region. In August, it also took down hundreds of accounts and Pages traced back to marketing firms in the UAE and Egypt.

Related: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Stirs Controversy in Leaked Recording

In particular, the firms created fake accounts and used them to post anti-Qatar, anti-Iran and pro-UAE propaganda. Egypt and the UAE cut off their ties with Qatar a couple of years ago, accusing the country's government of supporting terrorism. Here's a sample post by one of the fake Pages:

BuzzFeed News, which previously discovered the PR firm-run fake accounts, talked to Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Project researcher Samantha Bradshaw. She said she and her fellow researchers are increasingly seeing more and more "PR firms or strategic communication firms offer computational propaganda as a service for all sorts of clients, including governments." She added that the firms that engage in that kind of business "tend to work more internationally and take on more clients."

Related: How Is Controversy Affecting Facebook's Stock?

And it does look like fake news has become big business for marketing firms around the world because the social network has also removed 69 Facebook accounts, 42 Pages and 34 Instagram accounts engaging in inauthentic behavior linked to Indonesian media firm InsightID. Finally, it has pulled 163 Facebook accounts, 51 Pages, 33 Groups and 4 Instagram accounts linked to Egyptian newspaper El Fagr. Those fake accounts and Pages also posted pro-UAE, Saudi and Egypt, as well as anti-Qatar and Iran content.

Mariella Moon is an associate editor at Engadget.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Business News

This Highly-Debated Piece of Cinematic History Just Sold For Over $700,000 at Auction

The wood panel from "Titanic" is often mistaken as a door. Either way, he couldn't have fit. (Sorry.)

Business News

From Tom Brady to Kevin O'Leary – See Who Lost Big in the Wake of the FTX Crypto Collapse

The crash exposed an $8 billion hole in FTX's accounts, leaving investors and customers scrambling to recoup their funds.

Starting a Business

How to Find the Right Programmers: A Brief Guideline for Startup Founders

For startup founders under a plethora of challenges like timing, investors and changing market demand, it is extremely hard to hire programmers who can deliver.