WASHINGTON -- A "Unite the Right" counter-protest event page was among 32 pages and accounts recently removed by Facebook due to "coordinated inauthentic behavior," but the event's legitimate co-hosts say the protest will still go on.
According to a press release by Facebook, 32 pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram were involved in the coordinated inauthentic behavior.
"This kind of behavior is not allowed on Facebook because we don’t want people or organizations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing," the Facebook release reads.
Facebook stated that they are still in the early phases of the investigation and don't have all of the information. It is not clear at this time who is behind the illegitimate accounts.
The event-in-question does have a legitimate permit approved to stage a counter-protest to the Unite the Right rally scheduled for Lafayette Square in front of the White House on August 12.
The social media company did state however that "it's clear that whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their true identities than the Russian-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) has in the past."
A page called the "Resisters" is behind the "No Unite the Right 2 - DC" event page for a protest that is scheduled on August 12.
Despite Facebook's decision to take down the event page, some of the co-hosts took to social media to express their anger and reinforce that they are in fact legitimate. ShutItDownDC tweeted that they aren't promoting anybody's views but their own.
Scott Ross, who refers to himself as an Africanist anthropologist and humanitarian on Twitter, also tweeted something similar, saying Facebook deleted an event that many local D.C. activists had been organizing.
According to Facebook however, the disabled page had inauthentic admins on it.
Facebook said they were reaching out to about 2,600 users interested in the event and then some 600 users who planned on attending the event.
