The U.S.-based NGO Avaaz, which is active in the fight against cybercrime, said it has identified over 500 suspicious pages and groups on Facebook suspected of disseminating fake news within the EU ahead of the European elections.
This information enabled Facebook to withdraw content totalling over 500 million views in the past three months.
Avaaz said that it alerted Facebook to 500 suspicious pages and groups followed by close to 32 million users, who generated over 67 million interactions (comments, likes and shares) over the past three months.
During the same period, content linked to these groups and pages, which often seek to stir up hate against migrants or to denigrate Brussels, generated 533 million views.
Avaaz said Facebook had already withdrawn 77 pages and accounts to which it had been alerted. It said that these pages accounted for 5.9 million subscribers – more than the six main EU extreme right or anti-EU groups, namely the League, AfD, VOX, the Brexit party, RN and PiS., which total 2.2 million.
The U.S.-based NGO has launched a campaign baptised “Correct the record” to oblige Facebook to show to everyone who has already viewed content identified as false by the fact-checking services, the articles that contradict them.
Via Avaaz
