OAKLAND, Calif. — While Facebook has heralded improvements to its fight against disinformation in the United States, it has been slow to deal with fake accounts that have affected elections around the world, according to a post published by a former employee. The employee, who worked on a Facebook team dedicated to rooting out so-called inauthentic activity on the service, said executives ignored or were slow to react to her repeated warnings about the problem. As countries like Russia, China and Iran have continued sophisticated disinformation operations, Ms. Zhang’s post has drawn attention to smaller countries that run cheap and easy bot networks to influence their citizens. In one example, bots promoted the president of Honduras. In another, they attacked opposition figures in Azerbaijan.

Source: New York Times September 14, 2020 22:30 UTC