Facebook's attempt to thwart disinformation campaigns has typically focused on Russia and other hostile countries, but it's now grappling with that problem on its home soil. The site has confirmed to the Washington Post that it suspended five accounts for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" during the 2017 Alabama special election for the Senate, including the CEO of social media research company New Knowledge.
The suspensions came after Morgan acknowledged that he'd created a deceptive Facebook page aimed at conservatives, and had bought retweets on Twitter. Morgan argued that this was part of a research effort to see how online misinformation spread rather than a conscious effort to skew the election, but Facebook clearly didn't see it that way. It came alongside a larger internet-based effort to attack Republican controversial candidate Roy Moore by backing a write-in candidate and falsely claiming that Twitter bots were fueling Moore's support.

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