By Katherine Marajas
Facebook has removed over 200 pages managed by the digital marketing company Twinmark Media Enterprises for "violation of misrepresentation and spam policies."
"This organization has repeatedly violated our misrepresentation and spam policies — including through coordinated inauthentic behavior, the use of fake accounts, leading people to ad farms, and selling access to Facebook Pages to artificially increase distribution and generate profit," Facebook's Head of Cybersecurity Policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, wrote in a statement.
"We do not want our services to be used for this type of behavior, nor do we want the group to be able to reestablish a presence on Facebook," he added.
The company took down 220 pages, 73 accounts, and 29 Instagram accounts.
Some of the pages deleted were TNP Media with 4.3 million followers, Unhappy, Text Message, Filipino Channel Online, and Gorgeous Me.
"This specific investigation began after we learned that Twinmark was selling admin rights to Facebook Pages it had created, in order to increase distribution and generate profit, which violates our spam policy," Gleicher said.
"This prompted our teams to take a deeper look at a broader group of Pages and accounts associated with these users, ultimately uncovering a large network of Pages and accounts that were engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior, the use of fake accounts, leading people to ad farms and selling access to Facebook Pages."
Facebook said it will continue to invest heavily in safety and security in order to ensure that people can continue to trust the connections they make on the social media site.
In October 2018, Facebook also removed 95 pages and 39 accounts in the Philippines.