Meta deletes 1,000 fake Russian accounts, troll group for supporting Ukraine war

In an attempt to stifle voices supporting ongoing Russian atrocities in Ukraine, Meta took a drastic measure and removed nearly 1,000 "fake Russian accounts" across its platforms. In a statement, cited by Kyiv Independent, Meta has disabled up to 45 Facebook and 1,037 Instagram accounts which were operated by Russian trolls that were found targeting public figures that support Ukraine's sovereignty. 

Meta also banned a pro-Russian group Cyber Front Z that purported to mobilise  supporters of Vlimir Putin's war in Ukraine through  Telegram channel. According to Meta's statement, Cyber Front Z hn't "succeeded in rallying substantial auntic support online as part of this operation." 

"Several hundred people were reportedly employed and compensated in rubles to leave pro-Russian comments in order to fabricate illusion of widespre support for Russia’s war," paper said in a tweet. 

Moscow levelled 'extremism charges' on Meta for anti-Russia content

After Russia launched an all invasion of Ukraine, a court ordered an immediate ban on social networking sites Instagram and Facebook, snubbing  American corporation Meta's attempts of dismissing "extremism charges" against it levelled by Moscow. In a ruling,  Tverskoy Court of Moscow questioned activities of American social media platforms owned by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta as unregulated content that Moscow linked with “extremism” flooded, calling for violence against Russian soldiers as war in Ukraine ensued. 

Judge Olga Solopova stated that decision to ban Meta’s platforms will take effect immediately and asked Meta to shut down its offices. Such an appeal to ban Meta's platforms was brought to court by Federal Security Service of Russian Federation [FSB]  main successor ncy to Soviet Union's KGB of which Russian president Vlimir Putin was a member.  ruling, although, did t apply to WhatsApp messenger, also owned by Meta. 

After social media clampdown, as directed by court,  Russians were found to be resorting to Virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access blocked sites such as Meta's Facebook and Instagram. Russian citizens have been eving  location-based restrictions by accessing banned sites on VPN that allows more private browsing by encrypting internet traffic.  VPNs demand in Moscow surged by 1,092%, Top10VPN.com said citing data to back figures.