https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/08/facebook-roger-stone/


Roger Stone, longtime adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump (Leah Millis/Reuters)

The longtime Trump friend and former campaign adviser used fake accounts and other deceptive tactics to manipulate public debate, the company said

By Craig Timberg and Isaac Stanley-Becker

July 8, 2020 at 3:00 p.m. EDT

Facebook took down a network of more than 100 pages and accounts on Wednesday it said was affiliated with convicted felon and former Republican operative Roger Stone for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” dating back to around the 2016 election and its aftermath, the company said.

Facebook officials said Stone, a longtime friend of President Trump and adviser to his first presidential campaign, used fake accounts and other deceptive measures to manipulate public debate. He also, in at least a small number of occasions, drew attention to posts made by anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the company said.

Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy for Facebook, said that Stone’s personal accounts were among 54 Facebook accounts, 50 Facebook pages and four Instagram accounts closed Wednesday for policy violations.

Of Stone’s personal accounts, Gleicher said, “We saw them deeply enmeshed in the activity here.”

Gleicher added that the action was driven by numerous violations against Facebook’s policy against “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” not the political views expressed through the accounts affiliated with Stone.

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