A fake political group that recruited a real candidate in Montana got banned on Facebook

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he "Patriots Run Project" encouraged its followers to run for office before Meta took action.

Meta’s latest round of account takedowns includes a fake political group that ran dozens of dummy accounts in an attempt to recruit Americans to run for office. The social network detailed the scheme in its latest report on coordinated inauthentic behavior on its platform.

According to Meta, the fake accounts, pages and Facebook groups were trying to prop up a fictitious political group called “Patriots Run Project,” that encouraged people to challenge Republican and Democratic “elites” by running for office. In all, Meta uncovered 124 Facebook accounts, pages and groups as well as three Instagram accounts. The group primarily targeted people in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, and spent $50,000 in Facebook ads.

By Karissa Bell

Full story at Engadget.