Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg: ‘significant number’ of fake news attempts in Ala. special election

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Facebook_Roy Moore and Doug Jones
During an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, said the popular platform worked to shut down “fake news” during Alabama’s contentious special election in December between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones.
Zuckerberg explained a number of Macedonian accounts attempted to the influence the outcome of the race.

“In last year, in 2017 with the special election in Alabama, we deployed some new (artificial intelligence) tools to identify fake accounts and false news, and we found a significant number of Macedonian accounts that were trying to spread false news, and were able to eliminate those,” Zuckerberg said to The Times. “And that, actually, is something I haven’t talked about publicly before, so you’re the first people I’m telling about that.”

Ultimately, Jones bested Moore in the race and went on to become Alabama’s junior U.S. Senator replacing Jeff Sessions who vacated the seat to become the U.S. Attorney General under President Donald Trump.

Kayla Moore, Moore’s wife, posted on Facebook Thursday that they did not know about the Macedonian efforts. The were “news to us” she said.

“The entire world was watching the race so there’s no telling what went on, but we were simply trying to run an Alabama campaign with the help of conservatives all across the state and the nation,” said Kayla.