Facebook shuts down network linked to German anti-COVID group, launches rules on 'social harms'

Facebook has removed a network of accounts linked to an anti-COVID restrictions movement in Germany as it announced a new crackdown on coordinated campaigns of real users that cause harm on and off its platforms.

Reuters exclusively reported on Thursday that Facebook's security teams were expanding the tactics used to take down influence operations using fake accounts to do more wholesale shutdowns of coordinated groups of real-user accounts causing harm, through mass reporting or brigading.

In a related change, Facebook has also been working for several months to use its tactics against "coordinated social harm," its head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a call with reporters on Thursday.