Facebook says it blocked more accounts on Election Day, in addition to the 115 it shut down earlier this week, due to suspected connections to foreign efforts to interfere in the vote.
The news came as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rejected a request to appear before an international parliamentary committee delving into the questions around fake news.
The social media giant said it blocked an unspecified number of accounts Tuesday evening after a website that claimed to be associated with the Russia-based Internet Research Agency published a list of Instagram accounts it says it created.
Facebook said it had already blocked most of those accounts and has now blocked the rest.
A day earlier, the company had suspended 30 Facebook accounts and 85 Instagram accounts after a law enforcement tipoff they may have been linked to foreign entities.
U.S. tech companies have stepped up efforts to fight disinformation campaigns by Russian groups, who authorities accuse of swaying the 2016 presidential election.
The rebuff
Zuckerberg’s rebuff came after Damian Collins, the head of the U.K. parliament’s media committee, joined forces with his Canadian counterpart in hopes of pressuring Zuckerberg to testify, as he did before the U.S Congress. Facebook rejected the invitation to appear before the so-called “international grand committee” session Nov. 27, arguing it wasn’t possible for Zuckerberg to appear before all parliaments.
Collins says pressure is building, with counterparts in Australia, Argentina and Ireland having joined the grand committee in the time since Zuckerberg was invited.
He says “five parliaments are now calling on you to do the right thing by the 170 million users in the countries they represent.”
