TheWashington Poston Saturday discover one booted individual as Jonathon Morgan , the CEO of societal media research firmNew Knowledge . Morgan , whose firm was regard in give rise a account for the Senate on Russian disinformation activity , was among those who participate in the umbrageous tactics during Alabama ’s Senate slipstream . In a statement to Gizmodo by e-mail , the company said that an investigation into the behavior is presently afoot .
“ We ’ve lately removed five account run by multiple individuals for engaging in co-ordinated unauthentic behavior on Facebook around the Alabama special election , and our investigating is on-going , ” a Facebook voice say . “ We take a strong stand against people or organizations that create net of account to mislead others about who they are or what they ’re doing . We ’ve removed thousands of Pages , Groups , and calculate for this kind of behaviour , as well as accounts that were violating our policies on spam and co-ordinated inauthentic behavior during the Alabama special election last year . ”
The New York Times report this week that it obtained an internal report on the secret disinformation project , which it said was spearheaded by Democratic technical school expert . Posing as conservatives of Alabama on a fake Facebook varlet , participants in the project essay to cook Republicans and Yankee votes from Moore , who narrowly lost the election to Doug Jones , a Democrat .
According to the Times , the attempt “ involved a scheme to unite the Moore drive to thousands of Russian accounts that abruptly began follow the Republican nominee on Twitter , a development that drew interior media attention . ” Morgan defended the effort as a “ modest experiment ” and “ research undertaking ” aimed at unspoiled empathise disinformation movement .
While the Times noted that the project was most likely too minor in scale to sway the election importantly , there is of course no way to know for sure .
Speaking with theWashington Postearlier this week , Morgan said the task “ was like an , ‘ Is it possible , ’ small - scurf , almost like a thought experiment . ” He said that while the project seemed “ unobjectionable ” at the sentence , “ a yr later on , with the welfare of history … mayhap I would second - guess that decision now . ”
[ Washington Post , New York Times ]
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