FB deletes accounts linked to India's Congress party, Pakistan military

Reuters:  Facebook has deleted 712 accounts and 390 pages in India and Pakistan for "inauthentic behaviour," it said on Monday (April 1), many linked to India's opposition Congress party days before a national election, and others related to Pakistan's military. Facebook has come under increasing pressure around the world to ensure its social media platform is not abused for political purposes or to spread misinformation. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his rivals use official Facebook accounts to send political messages to millions of followers, thousands of unverified pages also share posts to support or criticize politicians. The company's review found individuals using fake accounts and issuing posts including criticism of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who were "associated with an INC (Indian National Congress) IT Cell." In a Tweet, Congress said none of its official pages or those run by its verified volunteers had been taken down. The party is awaiting a response from Facebook to provide a list of all pages and accounts which were removed, it said. In Pakistan, it removed 57 accounts, 24 pages, seven groups and 15 Instagram accounts, also for inauthentic behaviour, as part of a network that originated there and was linked to employees of a unit of the Pakistani military.