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Facebook groups prone to new sabotage trend

Facebook users in Sweden are being plagued by a new trend sweeping the popular social networking site where names of groups are being changed to titles with vulgar sexual connotations.

Two female Facebook users were left in shock after joining a group which allowed them to see who had visited their profile.

Without warning the group’s title was change to, ”Those of us who have sexual fantasies about our kids.”

Photos of their children from their own pages were also uploaded to the group’s picture gallery complete with vulgar comments.

Swedish police say this new wave of hacking is on the increase.

”It’s a big game on the internet at the moment,” said Anders Ahlqvist from the National Police Board’s (Rikspolisstyrelsen) IT-crime department to newspaper Aftonbladet.

Names of established groups are being changed to new titles, predominantly of a sexual nature. In addition, new groups are being set up to trick users by later reinventing themselves.

In December, it was reported that a group had emerged to encourage organisations to donate three kronor to heart and lung research.

When the group reached over 80,000 members, the title was changed along with the charitable effort, suggesting members supported the abolition of a woman’s right to vote.

”The aim is to provoke,” the group’s 20-year-old male creator told news agency TT.

”We want to show that you shouldn’t put so much trust in the groups you join.”

Further examples cited include a group originally called, ”Girls against guys – first to 100,000 users” which suddenly became, ”Those of us who have sex with our parents.”

According to Anders Ahlqvist it is not a crime to change the name of a group but to manipulate private pictures can be an offence.

Facebook’s representative in Sweden told Aftonbladet that users who have been affected should report the incidents via the website tool.

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Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany

Facebook says it has deleted the accounts, pages and groups linked to virus conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers in Germany who are vocal opponents of government restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany
An anti-vaccination and anti-Covid demo in Berlin on August 28th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christophe Gateau

With just 10 days to go before Germany’s parliamentary elections – where the handling of the pandemic by Angela Merkel’s goverment will come under scrutiny – Facebook said it had “removed a network of Facebook and Instagram accounts” linked to the so-called “Querdenker” or Lateral Thinker movement.

The pages posted “harmful health misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence”, the social media giant said in a statement.

It said that the people behind the pages “used authentic and duplicate accounts to post and amplify violating content, primarily focused on promoting the conspiracy that the German government’s Covid-19 restrictions are part of a larger plan to strip citizens of their freedoms and basic rights.”

The “Querdenker” movement, which is already under surveillance by Germany’s intelligence services, likes to portray itself as the mouthpiece of opponents
of the government’s coronavirus restrictions, organising rallies around the country that have drawn crowds of several thousands.

READ ALSO: Germany’s spy agency to monitor ‘Querdenker’ Covid sceptics

It loosely groups together activists from both the far-right and far-left of the political spectrum, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. And some of their rallies have descended into violence.

Social media platforms regularly face accusations that they help propagate misinformation and disinformation, particularly with regard to the pandemic and vaccines.

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