INFLUENCERS

Facebook Purges Hundreds of Iranian and Russian Fake Accounts

Social network removes political-influence campaigns run from Tehran and Moscow, as Zuckerberg hints at a “number” of investigations.

Facebook announced in a blog post Tuesday that it has taken down 652 Facebook and Instagram pages, groups, and accounts linked to the Iranian government for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” The company said the majority of the removed content was related to “Liberty Front Press,” a network of pages posing as “news and civil society organizations” in the Middle East, Latin America, the U.K., and U.S. when they were actually based out of Iran. According to the company, one part of the network was linked to Press TV, “an English-language news network affiliated with Iranian state media.” The Iranian accounts spent over $12,000 on advertisements, hosted more than 20 events, and participated in “traditional cybersecurity attacks” like trying to hack into people’s accounts and spread malware. The company said some of the pages and accounts were established in 2011, and it was made aware of the coordinated effort in 2017, when the pages “increased their focus on the U.K. and U.S.” The company also said it had removed groups and accounts the U.S. government has identified as Russian military intelligence services, which were participating in coordinated political campaigns around Syria and Ukraine.