Facebook says it has stopped stealth misinformation campaigns from Iran and Russia, as part of its battle against fake news ahead of elections in the United States and elsewhere.
The social network has removed more than 650 pages, groups and accounts identified as "networks of accounts misleading people about what they were doing," according to its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook said content from some of the pages was traced back to Iran while content from others led to groups previously linked to Russian intelligence operations.
Facebook has also announced that, in the US, it is cutting more than 5,000 ad-targeting options to prevent advertisers from discriminating based on traits such as religion or race.
Some media reports this year noted that advertisers could choose to target ads at African Americans, Hispanics or other demographic groups - or exclude them, to effectively market products or services to white people.
Facebook added that all US advertisers will need to certify that they accept the social network's non-discrimination policy.
In response the Kremlin has rejected Facebook’s allegations, saying it did not understand the basis for such accusations.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Facebook's Russia-related allegations made no sense to Moscow and said they looked similar to previous groundless allegations from other sources like Microsoft.
"They are all trying to outdo one another with their statements which all look like carbon copies of one another," said Mr Peskov.
"There is no supporting explanation and we do not understand on what they are based."
The announcement by Facebook came less than a week after the US Department of Housing and Urban Development accused Facebook of breaking the law by letting landlords and home sellers use its ad-targeting system to discriminate against potential buyers or tenants.
Facebook has said it plans to expand the measure to more countries, but provided no details.
