The popular and widely used social media platform, Facebook finally cracked down and removed the massive troll accounts and pages that plagues the country of Azerbaijan that influences its public on certain politicians and campaigns. Facebook faced controversies regarding the proliferation of large-scale political manipulation on its platform, according to one of its former employees.
STEPANAKERT, NAGORNO-KARABAKH - APRIL 17: Men cook shashlik, or grilled meat, to celebrate one of the men's wife's birthday and his son's marriage on February 21, 2015 in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh. Since signing a ceasefire in a war with Azerbaijan in 1994, Nagorno-Karabakh has functioned as a de facto part of Armenia, with hostilities along the line of contact between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan occasionally flaring up and causing casualties.
The social media conglomerate and technology company, Facebook, removed a total of 1,000 fake accounts and a massive 8,000 troll pages on the platform, all purveying fake news, information, and manipulative content from none other than Azerbaijan's political landscape.
A few weeks after the initial leak of the former Facebook employee turned whistleblower, Sophie Zhang, Facebook is now making its move to remove these kinds of content. During the early weeks of September, Zhang revealed that the social media platform has allowed massive troll accounts to manipulate politics in certain countries.
According to BuzzFeed News, Facebook is now holding its end of the stick and taking up responsibilities for its inaction after over a year since the initial report. The accounts removed were from the "Youth Union of the governing New Azerbaijan Party."
Among numerous others, these accounts were in charge of attacking political opposition and the free media who are enemies of the country's current rulers. Azerbaijan's social media's political atmosphere is now a bit clear and free thanks to Facebook and its former employee's actions.
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Sophie Zhang's 'Greatest Unfinished Business'-Azerbaijan's Troll
Facebook's former data scientist left the company with feelings of disappointment and sadness as fake news and manipulation were left unchecked on the social media platform. Sophie Zhang could not tolerate the inaction being done by Facebook and its role in partaking in political decisions among individual countries.
Zhang admitted on her 6,600-word memo with BuzzFeed News that there was unfinished business left on the company, which she regrets to leave. Among those is Azerbaijan's political manipulation using social media among its citizens and constituents.
Now, the company has taken action and took down the pages and accounts after one entire year since its reception of the report. Facebook's head of security policy, Nathan Gleicher, said that the social media company identified Azerbaijan's trolls after an "internal investigation." The head did not admit that it was Zhang who started the probe for the company to look into.
Facebook admitted that it had trouble identifying and taking down the troll accounts because they were made as if the owners were real people, leaving behind legitimate-looking comments. Facebook's defense on its neglect among the fake accounts blames it on classification.
Is Facebook Whistleblower Fake News According to VP?
According to Facebook's VP of Integrity, Guy Rosen, whistleblower Sophie Zhang's testimony was invalid as it described "fake likes" not to be removed by Facebook. According to Rosen's tweet, the company indeed removes those through automatic detection already.
I thought she was only describing “fake likes?” https://t.co/FPWy8q3keE — Ryan Mac (@RMac18) October 8, 2020
Now, a Twitter user brings up the tweet again, after Facebook takes down the massive troll pages in Azerbaijan, suggesting the whistleblower was telling the truth.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Isaiah Alonzo
