Facebook Suspends Five Accounts Tied to Misleading Information in Alabama Special Election: Report

Facebook suspended the account of a top social media executive, in the wake of revelations that he was among several individuals who tried to spread misleading information during Alabama’s special election in 2017, according to The Washington Post. Jonathon Morgan, who heads the leading social media firm New Knowledge, confirmed his account was suspended after Facebook revealed that it was scrutinizing “five accounts run by a multiple individuals for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior,” The Post reported. Facebook, which said the “investigation is ongoing,” did not disclose a list of all the accounts suspended in relation to its inquiry. “We take a strong stand against people or organizations that create networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are or what they’re doing,” the social media giant reportedly said. “We’ve removed thousands of Pages, Groups and accounts for this kind of behavior, as well as accounts that were violating our policies on spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior during the Alabama special election last year.” Facebook’s move comes several days after Morgan told The Post that he had dabbled with questionable social media tactics in the race between Republican Roy Moore and Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. Morgan said that he launched a misleading page on Facebook intending to court conservatives. Morgan also revealed that he bought retweets on Twitter to boost political messaging. Morgan’s techniques have prompted controversy given how New Knowledge has helped Senators figure out how Russia used social media to influence the 2016 election.