Page 24 - aruba today

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 14 March 2020

Pedestrian uses her phone while wearing a face mask in Herald In this Jan. 9, 2019, file photo, media and guests mingle before a tour of Facebook's new
Square, Thursday, March 12, 2020, in New York. 130,000-square-foot offices, which occupy the top three floors of a 10-story Cambridge, Mass.
Associated Press Associated Press
How to clean the Facebook takedowns reveal

bundle of germs sophistication of Russian trolls

that is your phone By BARBARA ORTUTAY The accounts Facebook divisive issues — race re-

AP Technology Writer took down focused on lations, gun laws and im-
By TALI ARBEL or wipes with 70% alcohol, Facebook and Twitter re- stoking racial divisions. migration — as they did
AP Technology Writer which you can get at the vealed evidence Thursday Some posed as legitimate in 2016, when the Kremlin
NEW YORK (AP) — You're drugstore, to wipe down suggesting that Russian ef- non-governmental organi- polluted American voters'
washing your hands count- your phone. Apple, which forts to interfere in the U.S. zations in order to deceive feeds with messages about
less times a day to try to has cautioned against us- presidential election are people. the presidential election.
ward off the coronavirus. ing household cleaners getting more sophisticated The takedowns follow a re- Facebook has since re-
You should also wash that on its phones, says to do and harder to detect. port last week that found moved those accounts as
extension of your hand and that "gently." AT&T has fur- The companies said they Moscow's campaign of well.
breeding ground for germs ther recommended wring- have removed dozens of election interference hasn't Last month, FBI Director
— your phone. Tests done ing out disinfectant wipes fake accounts and pages let up since 2016, and in Christopher Wray warned
by scientists show that the before using them on a from their services. fact has gotten more diffi- that Russia was still waging
virus can live for two to phone. Facebook said the network cult to detect. "information warfare" with
three days on plastic and You can also use soft cloths of accounts it removed That report, from Univer- an army of fictional social
stainless steel. The Centers to clean the phone, like a was in the "early stages" sity of Wisconsin-Madison media personas and bots
for Disease Control and microfiber cleaning cloth of building an audience. It professor Young Mie Kim, that spread disinformation.
Prevention recommends or the cloths used to clean was operated by people found that Russia-linked Russia has repeatedly
cleaning all "high-touch" your glasses. Google says in Ghana and Nigeria on social media accounts are denied interfering in U.S.
surfaces daily, including you can dip the cloth in behalf of individuals in Rus- posting about the same elections.q
phones, keyboards and soap and water, as long sia. The accounts posted
tablet computers. as you're careful not to get about topics such as black
But cleaning your phone moisture in the phone. AT&T history, celebrity gossip and
improperly can damage it. says paper towels work, fashion.
You want to avoid getting too. You can spray them Twitter, meanwhile, said
moisture inside it or scratch- with disinfectant. Again, the accounts it removed
ing the surface. Don't spray don't spray the phone itself. tried to sow discord by em-
cleaners directly on the The phone-cleaning step phasizing social issues such
phone, don't dunk it in is one of many measures as race and civil rights with-
cleaning solutions, don't public-health authorities out favoring any particular
spray it with compressed- are recommending to try candidate or ideology.
air devices used to clean to slow the spread of the The tactics the accounts
keyboards and avoid rub- virus, which has infected used to avoid detection —
bing it with abrasive mate- 137,000 people worldwide. and that Russia has essen-
rials. More than 5,000 have died. tially outsourced the work
Instead, start by turning off Most patients have only to countries in West Africa
the phone and unplug- mild or moderate symp- — shows that foreign inter-
ging all cables. Your phone toms, but the elderly and ference remains a chal-
shouldn't be charging as people with existing health lenge for Facebook in the
you clean. conditions are particularly months leading to Novem-
You can use Clorox wipes vulnerable.q ber.