Facebook reveals Iran tried to interfere in independence vote
Iran’s state broadcaster attempted to interfere with the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum, using fake accounts, memes, and imitations of The Scotsman’s cartoons in an attempt to disrupt the democratic process, according to new reports released by Facebook and a leading social media analysis firm.
In what has been described as one of the earliest attempts of foreign interference in Western democracy using social media, accounts tied to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation (IRIB) attacked the economic case for the Union and portrayed then prime minister David cameron as“the embodiment of English oppression ”.
The Iranian-backed influence campaign also set up a Facebook page entitled The Scotsman Cartoon – an apparent attempt to imitate this title’s award-winning political cartoons – to spread proindependence messaging.
It is among hundreds of pages, accounts, and groups taken down by Facebook in the past week for what the company described as “co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour”.
It said individuals behind this network relied on a combination of authentic and fake accounts to engage in “foreign interference,” not only in Scotland, but the US and a slew of nations across the Middle East and Africa.
Prior to shutting the accounts and pages down on 30 April, Facebook shared details of them with Graphika, a New York-based social network analysis firm, so that it could carry out an independent assessment.
Its report found that after attempts in 2012 to promote the then US presidential hopeful, Ron Paul, in the Republican primaries, and posts designed to amplify the Occupy movement’s messaging, the IRIB turned its attention to Scotland in late 2013 as the independence referendum campaign intensified.
“This revolved around an account called Sara Bill that also posted about the Occupy movement, and a single page called The Scotsman Cartoon, most likely named to resemble leading Scottish daily The Scotsman,” Graphika explained.
“The page offered a series of cartoons in a wide range of visual styles but on a common theme: Scotland’s need for independence. Many of the cartoons attacked then prime minister David Cameron, portraying him as the embodiment of English oppression.”
The Sara Bill account’s posts include links to a BBC Scotland news story about an upsurge in Yes Scotland members, as well as cartoons and videos of Croatian football fans, apparently endorsing Scottish independence.
The Iranian president said lifting a United Nations arms embargo on Tehran would be an “obvious right” as he added a veiled warning of unspecified steps Iran could take if the embargo is extended.
Hassan Rouhani’s remarks were in response to a push by the US, which last month circulated a draft UN resolution that would indefinitely extend the embargo set to expire in October. Such a move is almost certain to spark opposition from Russia, which has made no secret of its desire to resume conventional weapons sales to Tehran.
“Iran considers the lifting of the arms embargo an obvious right,” Mr Rouhani said during a Cabinet meeting broadcast live on state TV.
A UN Security Council resolution that endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers envisages an end to the embargo five years after the deal. US president Donald Trump pulled America out of the deal in 2018 and imposed harsher sanctions on Iran. The arms embargo was not a part of the 2015 accord, but Iran has long sought its removal and its expiration was included in the council resolution as a reward for Iranian compliance.
Since Iran is admittedly no longer complying with several elements of the nuclear deal, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the US administration believes it has a case to make that the embargo should not be lifted,.
But Mr Rouhani said extending the embargo would lead to “serious consequence and a historic failure” for the West.
If the embargo is extended, Mr Rouhani said Iran’s response would mirror the steps it took after the US pullout from nuclear deal, including going beyond the deal’s enrichment and stockpile limitations and injecting uranium gas into more than a thousand centrifuges at a fortified nuclear facility built inside a mountain. Mr Rouhani did not elaborate, but insisted that Iran’s arms programme has always been a “defensive” one.
Before the embargo, Iran had said it was exporting arms to dozens of countries, but never offered specifics.
Though it is not independently verifiable, Iran has been seeking a military self-sufficiency programme since 1992, producing an array of weapons, including missiles, torpedoes, submarines and jetfighters.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped both the US and Iran, which has the worst outbreak in the Middle East, tensions have escalated between Tehran and Washington in recent months.
In april, the us navy said that 11 gunboats belonging to Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard forces carried out “dangerous and harassing approaches” to American Navy and Coast Guard vessels in the Persian Gulf.