Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Facebook announced Thursday that it removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to an organization for young conservatives.
The social media company said Rally Force, a marketing company, worked with Turning Point USA, a non-profit for conservative students, to create some 200 fake accounts and 55 fake pages on Facebook, and 76 fake accounts on Instagram.
Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of security policy, said Rally Force then used those accounts and pages to post criticisms of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and offer support for President Donald Trump. The marketing company also used the accounts to comment on pages and posts by major U.S. news organizations.
"Many of these accounts used stock profile photos and posed as right-leaning individuals from across the U.S. In 2018, some of these accounts posed as left-leaning individuals to comment on content as well," Gleicher wrote in a blog post.
The fake accounts commented on issues including sport hunting, the 2018 midterm elections, the 2020 presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Turning Point USA said Rally Forge worked with a separate but affiliated legal entity called Turning Point Action.
"Turning Point Action works hard to operate within social platforms' [terms of service] on all of its projects and communications and we hope to work closely with FB to rectify any misunderstanding," Turning Point Action said in a statement to CNN.
