Facebook announced Tuesday that it had deleted the Facebook page for anti-immigrant group VDARE, after discovering “coordinated inauthentic behavior” in a network of Facebook pages and accounts connected to the group. The social media giant said that 19 pages, fifteen accounts, and one group had been involved in a scheme to use fake accounts to “evade enforcement” and “create fictitious personas,” among other things. The pages, which were investigated as part of Facebook’s efforts to stop manipulation ahead of the 2020 election, posted conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and “hate speech about Asian Americans,” according to Facebook. The pages were followed by more than 207,700 accounts and promoted with $114,000 in Facebook ad purchases, according to the company. VDARE, which has published anti-immigration articles from white supremacists and is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
