Facebook did not take down fake accounts linked to BJP MP, alleges former employee

She said that only a network of fake accounts directly linked to BJP leader was not taken down while the rest were removed by Facebook

A former Facebook employee has claimed that the BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party used fake accounts in 2019 in the run-up to Delhi elections but only accounts linked to a BJP lawmaker were not removed by the American tech giant.

Sophie Zhang, a former data scientist and now a whistleblower, told NDTV that only a network of fake accounts directly linked to a BJP leader was not taken down while the rest were removed by Facebook. "We took down four out of the five networks, but the fifth one - at the last moment, right before we were going to take it down - we realised that it was tied to a BJP politician, a Member of Lok Sabha, and as soon as they realised that, I could not get an answer from anyone on what's going to be done with this network of fake accounts," Zhang said.

In late 2019, Zhang said, she found four networks of fake accounts that were created to influence election results. Two each from the BJP and the Congress. "We took down three of the networks, two INC, one BJP network. We were about to take down the last network but suddenly they stopped because they realised that the fourth network was directly, personally run by the BJP politician and that was the network that I was unable to do anything about."

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Later in January 2020, Zhang claimed, she found a network of fake accounts that were spreading pro-AAP messages but they were falsely pretending to be BJP supporters who voted for Modi in 2019. This attempt was for "winning over other BJP supporters''.

This network was taken down, she said.

Mark Zuckerberg-led company failed to acknowledge the issue despite many reminders, she alleged.

Facebook refuted the claims of their former employee. "We've already taken down more than 150 networks of coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Around half of them were domestic networks that operated in countries around the world, including those in India. Combatting coordinated inauthentic behaviour is our priority. We're also addressing the problems of spam and fake engagement. We investigate each issue before taking action or making public claims about them," a Facebook spokesperson said.

The company has been under fire after reports emerged last year that Facebook India did not extend the hate speech rules to people and pages linked to the BJP. Facebook has 32.8 crore users in the country, making it a bigger market than the US.

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