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(Adds Prigozhin comment)
LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Rival French and Russian disinformation campaigns have sought to deceive Internet users -- and unmask each other -- in the Central African Republic (CAR) ahead of a Dec. 27 presidential and parliamentary election, Facebook said on Tuesday.
Facebook said it was the first time it had seen such a direct battle of the trolls by competing foreign states on its platforms, with the rivals’ fake accounts denouncing each other as “fake news”.
The company said it had suspended three networks totalling almost 500 accounts and pages for so-called “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”.
One network was linked to “individuals associated with French military,” it said. The other two had connections to “individuals associated with past activity by the Russian Internet Research Agency”, as well as to Evgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman indicted in the United States for election interference.
The French defence ministry and military command did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Asked about the Africa allegations, Prigozhin, who has denied the U.S. charges, told Reuters in a message that he considered Facebook a CIA tool which took down pages to suit U.S. interests.
Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy ..
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