Facebook announced today that it has removed 783 pages, groups and accounts that were apparently engaging in "coordinated inauthentic behavior" tied to Iran. According to Facebook, these accounts mostly operated under a false or concealed identity, and were repurposing Iranian state media content as if it was their own. They appeared to be targeting audiences in the Middle East and South Asia, and seem to be part of a network created to spread misleading news. According to Facebook, some of this activity dates back to 2010.
Of the accounts taken down, 262 pages, 356 accounts and 3 groups were from Facebook, and 162 accounts were from Instagram. At least one of the Pages had around 2 million followers, around 1,600 accounts joined at least one of the groups and at least one of Instagram accounts has more than 254,000 followers.
"The removal is not related to the nature of the content or who is saying it," said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, on a call to the press. He said that the reason Facebook took them down is because they represented themselves to be independent news outlets, when they weren't. "We can see that they are controlled by operators from Iran." Facebook wouldn't specify if the accounts were run by the Iranian government specifically, as there isn't enough evidence to do so, but the implication seems to be that those running the fake accounts were spreading information that was sympathetic to the Iranian state.
Some of the commentary were repurposed Iranian state media on topics relating to Israel-Palestine relations as well as conflicts in the Syria and Yemen that mentioned the roles of other countries like the US, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
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Source: Facebook
via engadget.com
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