The five Facebook pages an ABC investigation linked to foreign interference in the UK election have been taken down for deception and "inauthentic engagement tactics".
Over the weekend ABC Investigations unmasked a network of coordinated Facebook pages that had been spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda, with some also posting in support of Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK party — a key challenger to the Conservatives in the July 4 poll.
The pages were administered from Nigeria, which Meta has previously uncovered as a base of operations for Russian-linked influence efforts.
In a statement to media, the Conservative Party said allegations of Russian interference were "gravely concerning" and its party chair has since written to the Cabinet Secretary and National Security Adviser requesting an investigation.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has since confirmed to ABC Investigations that it had examined the five pages in the network and shut them down.
"We removed these pages for inauthentic behaviour deceiving people about who is behind them, including posing as UK-based pages while being run out of Nigeria," said a Meta spokesperson.
"The majority of their followers were outside the UK, primarily in Vietnam, which is consistent with using inauthentic engagement tactics to make [the] pages appear more popular than they are.
"We'll continue monitoring and take action if we find further violations."
Meta did not respond to the ABC's questions about pro-Kremlin narratives being pushed by the coordinated network.
UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told British media on Sunday that the report exposed a "classic example from the Russian playbook".
"There is a threat in all elections, and indeed we see it in this election from hostile state actors seeking to influence the outcome of the election campaign," he said.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage deflected suggestions from the Conservatives that he was being boosted by a Russian influence operation.
"Hang on, did you ask [Mr Dowden] how many millions of pounds his party has taken from Russian sources over the course of the last few years?" said Mr Farage.
There is no evidence that Mr Farage or Reform UK were directly involved with the pages, though some Facebook pages of Reform UK local branches had shared the AI-generated anti-immigration memes.
The five pages, which had a combined 190,000 followers, all featured criticism of UK political parties, with some supporting Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
Two of the pages presented as left-wing or pro-refugee, while others were posting AI-generated racist imagery and promoted white supremacist conspiracies.
The ABC linked the five seemingly disparate pages by examining location data attached to the pages' administrators, tracking paid ads that were purchased with Nigerian currency, and by analysing the pages' similar or shared content.
All of the pages had boosted pro-Kremlin talking points, including criticising the West's support of Ukraine and spread misinformation about its president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The ABC's analysis of the five pages found that while they claimed to be based in the UK, most of the administrators for each page are based in Nigeria, with a small number listed as being based in the UK.
After the publication of the ABC's story on Saturday, the pages removed the Nigerian-listed administrators before the pages were taken down by Meta on Monday.