Facebook suspends 'organized network' of Pakistani accounts and web pages

 Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, has announced that it has launched a 'network' of 103 web pages, 78 groups, 453 individual accounts and 107 Instagram accounts from Pakistan on its platform. Has been suspended for involvement in suspicious activities. According to Facebook, they investigated the suspicious accounts and found that they were "organized and uncertified".

Facebook has published its report entitled 'Coordinated in Authentic Behavior', a report that identifies accounts that are being run in a highly organized manner and trying to divert public attention. Are

Facebook provided information about these accounts and pages to the Internet Observatory Group (SIO) at Stanford University in the United States.

The group's research found that the most important common denominator was that the suspended accounts violated Facebook's policies by systematically reporting large-scale accounts to Pakistan, Islamabad. , Used to publish material against the Pakistani government and the Pakistani army.

The SIO's investigation also revealed that the suspended accounts also reported for the suspension of accounts linked to the Ahmadi community, and that the content on the network's pages and accounts was published by the Pakistani military, Pakistani intelligence. The ISI and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were full of praise. Last year, Facebook suspended more than 100 accounts belonging to Pakistan, which the company said were also found to have committed "systematic and unverified behavior". "These pages and accounts have been found to be linked to ISPR personnel from the Pakistan Army's public relations department." Complaining of accounts and pages that were "largely highly organized" and reporting "anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan". Shelby Grossman, lead researcher and author of a study by the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), told the BBC that the most important finding in the study was the network's "rapidity". And qualifications' who have reported accounts so systematically. The study found that trolling pages, such as the Voice of Islam page, persuaded users to report as many accounts as possible and told users how to do so.

According to the SIO, the network has seen claims that Facebook suspended more than 200 accounts following its complaint. However, it could not be confirmed whether the network's complaints were the cause of Facebook's actions against the more than 200 accounts. The SIO also stated in its research that the network was also using an automated method of filing complaints so that it could be used to report and report a large number of pages and groups. ۔ According to the SIO, the user who developed the method, called Auto Reporter, regularly wrote that the purpose of creating the method was to report "accounts that are anti-Islamic, anti-Pakistan and dangerous." The network also developed and published training materials that tell users how to report as many accounts as possible. Shelby Grossman told the BBC: "The network has created videos of training materials on YouTube to tell users how to report accounts. I don't think there have been any attempts to speed up the process before. " All the pages and accounts were full of nationalist material and especially praised the Pakistani army and the secret service ISI. Asked if his team tried to find out who was behind the network, Shelby Grossman said he knew. However, their own assessment is that the material "found in the research was not of the same standard as the accounts suspended last year for ISPR-linked accounts."The research by the SIO states that "the accounts included in this network were also seen publishing anti-India material and posting in support of the Khalistan movement."

"We have also seen that the network has been publishing material against the Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian Army," the SIO said in its research. With the help of this information, it is not possible to know who the people running this network are and to whom they are connected. However, the authors of the SIO write, "We saw in a post published on this network that one of their colleagues had died and paid tribute to him by saying that he was very hardworking. , Was patriotic and worked diligently against opponents and was associated with agencies. However, it also appeared that the content published on the network was not up to the standard of content from accounts linked to the Pakistani military last year.

The network was also using an automated method of filing complaints called 'Auto Reporter', Shelby Grossman added, adding that the research suggests that social networking sites should re-evaluate the system for filing complaints. Because testing content is a very difficult task and this type of network adds to the difficulty.

She added that her team would not work on it further but hoped that Pakistani researchers and journalists would work on it further with the help of the material included in the SIO report. "Some accounts created in Pakistan present themselves as Indian accounts."

When the BBC contacted Facebook about the report, it said that its own research had revealed that the entire network was being run from Pakistan, but that some of the accounts had Indian identities. Offer as Many accounts in the network also published content in support of Khalistan. Asked why the research was limited to a few countries, Facebook said its team was constantly on its platform "systematically non-existent." Is trying to identify 'authentic behavior' and these efforts are not limited to any one country or region. Asked about Facebook's complaints system, the platform said it was working to improve its system and would test the content monitoring system with an independent body from next year. Review Facebook research independently. Facebook acknowledges that it does its best to investigate complaints before taking action, but errors occur and that is why it is constantly trying to improve the system. Facebook told the BBC that it scrutinizes every report it receives and that if it receives a single complaint or multiple complaints about an account or page, it does not affect its procedures. It should be noted that the report released by Facebook reviewed the networks established in the United States and Russia besides Pakistan and then a total of 521 accounts on Facebook, 137 Facebook pages, 78 groups and 72 Insta. Gram accounts suspended.