Facebook said that it has removed 137 fake pages, groups and Instagram accounts in the United Kingdom and a further 31 in Romania for engaging in hate speech and making divisive comments.

The company also outlined a series of steps it was taking to further tackle problematic pages on its site to do with the anti-vaccination movement.

In addition to lowering the ranking of pages, it said would reject advertisers who wanted to promote anti-vaccination.

The company also said that it won’t show or recommend content that contains misinformation about vaccinations on Instagram Explore or hashtag pages.

Facebook, Twitter and Google have been under pressure from regulators around the world in recent years to fight the spread of misinformation aimed at destabilising elections by stoking hardline positions or supporting propaganda campaigns.

Earlier on Thursday, Nathaniel Gleicher, head of Facebook’s cyber-security policy, wrote in a blog post that the individuals behind the fake pages, groups and accounts represented themselves as far-right and anti far-right activists in the UK.

“The two domestic operations we found originated in the UK and Romania,” he said. “We didn’t find any links between these sets of activities, but they used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing.”

Last month, Facebook removed hundreds of Indonesian accounts, pages and groups from its network after discovering they were linked to an online group accused of spreading hate speech and fake news.

Facebook said that the people behind the fake accounts frequently posted about local and political news including on such divisive topics as immigration, free speech, racism, LGBT issues, far-right politics, issues between India and Pakistan and religious beliefs including Islam and Christianity.

About 175,000 accounts followed one or more of these pages, while around 4,500 accounts followed one or more of these Instagram accounts.

In Romania, the page admins and account owners typically posted about political issues, including partisan news under fictitious bylines in support of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Gleicher said.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Sky has decried the “dangerous dark side” of social media. Jeremy Darroch said videos streamed by the likes of YouTube and Facebook should not be given a “free-pass” and must have the same strict rules as traditional broadcasters.

Earlier this month, Digital Minister Margot James suggested that a UK tech regulator could fine online companies approximately four per cent of their total global revenue for failing to handle abusive, disturbing and illegal content on their platforms.

Facebook said that it has removed 137 fake pages, groups and Instagram accounts in the United Kingdom and a further 31 in Romania for engaging in hate speech and making divisive comments.

The company also outlined a series of steps it was taking to further tackle problematic pages on its site to do with the anti-vaccination movement.

In addition to lowering the ranking of pages, it said would reject advertisers who wanted to promote anti-vaccination.

The company also said that it won’t show or recommend content that contains misinformation about vaccinations on Instagram Explore or hashtag pages.

Facebook, Twitter and Google have been under pressure from regulators around the world in recent years to fight the spread of misinformation aimed at destabilising elections by stoking hardline positions or supporting propaganda campaigns.

Earlier on Thursday, Nathaniel Gleicher, head of Facebook’s cyber-security policy, wrote in a blog post that the individuals behind the fake pages, groups and accounts represented themselves as far-right and anti far-right activists in the UK.

“The two domestic operations we found originated in the UK and Romania,” he said. “We didn’t find any links between these sets of activities, but they used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing.”

Last month, Facebook removed hundreds of Indonesian accounts, pages and groups from its network after discovering they were linked to an online group accused of spreading hate speech and fake news.

Facebook said that the people behind the fake accounts frequently posted about local and political news including on such divisive topics as immigration, free speech, racism, LGBT issues, far-right politics, issues between India and Pakistan and religious beliefs including Islam and Christianity.

About 175,000 accounts followed one or more of these pages, while around 4,500 accounts followed one or more of these Instagram accounts.

In Romania, the page admins and account owners typically posted about political issues, including partisan news under fictitious bylines in support of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Gleicher said.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Sky has decried the “dangerous dark side” of social media. Jeremy Darroch said videos streamed by the likes of YouTube and Facebook should not be given a “free-pass” and must have the same strict rules as traditional broadcasters.

Earlier this month, Digital Minister Margot James suggested that a UK tech regulator could fine online companies approximately four per cent of their total global revenue for failing to handle abusive, disturbing and illegal content on their platforms.