The company shut down the page Vietnam Vets of America, which
created politically divisive posts and had a following of nearly 200,000
people. That’s tens of thousands more than the number following Vietnam
Veterans of America, a page run by the veterans service organization of the
same name that accused the other page of being an “imposter.”
Vietnam Vets of America violated a section of the social
media network’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities about protecting other
people’s rights, said a Facebook official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the information had not been publicly released.
The action comes months after Vietnam Veterans of America
alerted Facebook’s security team.
“We’re glad to see that Facebook is taking seriously the
fact that agents outside the U.S. are targeting veterans on social media,” said
John Rowan, president of Vietnam Veterans of America.
Rowan referred to a study from Oxford University published
earlier this month that found Russian operatives used Twitter and Facebook to
disseminate “junk news” to veterans and servicemembers, including propaganda,
conspiracies and hyper-partisan political content.
It’s unclear who is behind the Vietnam Vets of America page,
and requests for comment from page administrators went unanswered.
Just last week, Facebook said it determined Vietnam Vets of
America wasn’t representing itself as Vietnam Veterans of America and that
Facebook’s community standards were not violated. At the time, a Facebook
spokesman explained the network wouldn’t disable a page for posting false
perspectives and encouraged Vietnam Veterans of America to speak out and
educate other users.
The veterans service organization responded by calling on
the Departments of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs to get involved
in stopping foreign entities from targeting veterans and servicemembers online.
Since then, Facebook concluded an intellectual property
complaint about the page was valid, the company official said. Late Tuesday, VVA celebrated the decision to shut down the
page but again called for the federal government to take action.
“We can’t afford to dedicate staff time and funds to play
whack-a-troll on the internet to protect our members from deception,” Rowan
said. “We’re encouraged by Facebook’s action this week but want to re-emphasize
that we believe the VA and DOD have a role to play in protecting troops and
veterans from influence and deception by foreign actors.”
Facebook, along with Twitter and Google, are expected to
face questions on Capitol Hill next week about how Russia was able to use their
platforms to intervene in the 2016 presidential election. Leaders of the social
media networks were invited to publicly testify Nov. 1 before Senate and House
intelligence committees.
In an interview with the news website Axios earlier this
month, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said the social media
network would be going after fake accounts, increasing transparency and hiring
thousands of staff to improve oversight.
SOURCE: Stars and Stripes