Iran’s Facebook campaign to stir trouble in West
FACEBOOK has uncovered an Iranian disinformation campaign that attracted more than one million British and American followers.
The social network said yesterday it had removed 82 pages designed to stir up divisions with ‘politically charged’ posts covering race, political leaders and immigration.
Sample posts included one that quoted Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s view on US immigration policy and another that claimed Theresa May wanted ‘ troops on the streets’ in the UK.
Facebook said it had only discovered the fake accounts a week ago but they had been in use for two years. Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cyber security policy, said the campaign was ‘ sowing discord and targeting socially divisive issues’. Facebook said it had not been able to confirm whether the accounts were linked to the Iranian state, but they originated in the country.
The campaign at one stage spanned 30 Facebook pages, 33 Facebook accounts, 3 Facebook groups and 16 accounts on Instagram.
About 1million users followed the pages overall, with 25,000 joining at least one of the groups and 28,000 following the Instagram accounts. Mr Gleicher said the people behind the campaign had tried to hide their identities and were ‘smart, well-funded adversaries who will never give up’. He added that activity had been ramped up ahead of the US midterm elections on November 6.
Mr Gleicher said: ‘There was an increase in engagement over the course of last year. We identified
‘Sowing discord and division’
this about a week ago and moved from detection to disruption.’
Facebook said it had shared information with the UK and American authorities, other companies such as Twitter and researchers. Images published by the company last night showed one post by a group called Thirst for Truth, which quoted Mr Corbyn’s comments about Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Below a picture of the Labour leader, it read: ‘The idea that somehow or other you can deal with all the problems in the world by banning a particular religious group from entering the USA is offensive and absurd.’
Another post attacked Mrs May and the Government after the Parsons Green terror attack in London in 2017, claiming it was ‘fishy’. The Prime Minister had just deployed armed troops to key locations after raising the terror threat level to severe.
The post said: ‘Theresa May would have troops on the streets permanently if she could.
‘Keep the fear high – the ultimate distraction for an inept, ideologically-crazed government.
‘Having seen some footage of this last incident in London it all seems a bit fishy to me.’
Facebook said it removed 82 of the ‘inauthentic’ pages, accounts or groups as recently as yesterday morning. It now had a ‘war room’ designed to rapidly take action against disinformation.