• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 6, 2018

As Americans head to the polls, Facebook says it has fresh evidence that foreign actors are trying to meddle in the midterm elections.

On Sunday, the tech titan apparently received a call from U.S. law enforcement regarding suspicious activity, which they believed was linked to foreign entities.

"Our very early-stage investigation has so far identified around 30 Facebook accounts and 85 Instagram accounts that may be engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior,” Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy, Facebook, notes in a new blog post.

Gleicher said these accounts were immediately blocked and are currently being investigated in more detail.

Nearly all the Facebook Pages associated with the suspicious accounts appear to be in the French or Russian languages, while the Instagram accounts seem to have mostly been in English.

As for content, some of the accounts were focused on celebrities, while others favored political debate.

“Typically, we would be further along with our analysis before announcing anything publicly,” Gleicher noted. Yet, he said it was important to release these preliminary findings in light of the midterm elections.

“Once we know more -- including whether these accounts are linked to the Russia-based Internet Research Agency or other foreign entities -- we will update this post,” Gleicher said.

Engaged in its own political campaign of sorts, Facebook has been publicizing its various efforts to curb fake news and political misinformation. For example, the social giant invited members of the news media into its “war room,” last month.

Opened in September, the physical room is located in Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters and brings together about 24 experts from the company’s threat intelligence, data science, software engineering, research, community operations and legal teams.

Tasked with tackling various safety and security issues, the team oversees a broader staff of roughly 20,000, according to Samidh Chakrabarti, director of product management and civic engagement, Facebook.

To prep for likely threats from foreign interference in voter suppression campaigns, the team has engaged in mock scenario-planning since September.