USA TODAY International Edition
Iran used Facebook to target US liberals
Nation waged covert campaign, experts say
SAN FRANCISCO – They were the kind of social media posts that regularly get shared in liberal circles, but they were coming from sham accounts originating in Iran, the most recently uncovered attempt by a foreign adversary to sway U.S. voters.
One meme on Facebook from a page called the Progressive Front showed former first lady Michelle Obama holding a doctored sign that read “An Immigrant Took My Job,” a swipe at Slovenia-born Melania Trump. A tweet from the account Liberty Front Press urged people to watch a video of a parent and child reunited after being separated at the border “and be reminded of why we fight every day against the monstrous and evil policies of the Trump regime.” YouTube channels featured videos such as “Everything You Need to Know about Impeachment.”
The fake pages, tweets and videos were all part of a covert disinformation campaign by Iran that operated in the USA and other countries, major U.S. tech companies said. Facebook, Google and Twitter disclosed last week they were shuttering hundreds of accounts and channels linked to the campaign.
The revelation, the biggest of its kind since Facebook disclosed the extent of Russian manipulation on the social network during the 2016 presidential election, highlighted the growing scale and frequency of disinformation operations threatening the United States, experts on these shadowy networks said. Iran has denied any involvement. “Everyone has seen that you can manipulate Americans using false personas online,” said Ben Nimmo with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which has been working with Facebook on election integrity. “All you need is an internet connection and the ability to speak English.”
This is the first time Iran was caught conducting an influence campaign on social media in the USA, experts on disinformation said. It used tactics similar to Russian operatives’ during and after the 2016 presidential election.
Social media posts were linked to articles posted on Iranian-run websites that were made to look like media outlets or nongovernmental organizations.
The objective: to hijack the political conversation to promote anti-Israeli, anti-Saudi and pro-Palestinian themes and Tehran’s interests around the globe, including U.S. policies favorable to Iran such as a nuclear deal, which Trump scrapped in May, that had lifted sanctions.
“Such claims are ridiculous and are part and parcel of U.S. public calls for regime change in Iran and are an abuse of social media platforms,” Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations, told Reuters last week.
Security company FireEye, which reported suspicious accounts operated under the name Liberty Front Press to Facebook, Google and Twitter two months ago, said Iran’s tactics appeared to have been far more focused on advancing its own foreign policy interests than on influencing U.S. elections.
If left in place, it’s possible the fake accounts and pages could have been used to sway politics, said Lee Foster, manager of FireEye’s information operations analysis team.
The attacks on social media point to how vulnerable the American public is, particularly during election cycles, security researchers said.
“This is the kind of thing that I would expect most state intelligence services with advanced information warfare and propaganda capabilities to conduct, and this is just the latest one we have uncovered,” said Jonathon Morgan, CEO of New Knowledge, a cybersecurity company that studies disinformation.
Russia has tried it, with some success. Facebook was a major target of a Russian disinformation campaign during and after the U.S. presidential election Hundreds of pages and accounts were discovered to have been created by the Russian-based Internet Research
Agency.
The organization bought thousands of ads targeting Americans, often with rubles, and created posts with divisive messages that reached 146 million Americans on Facebook and Instagram.
Last month, the social media giant took down 32 pages and accounts that reached 290,000 people. The accounts were critical of Trump, a departure from 2016, when Russian messaging sought to bolster his candidacy and undercut his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
For Iran, the veiled social media campaign marked a shift in strategy – and an escalation, Morgan said. In the past, Iran used cyberattacks on U.S. government agencies, universities and private companies to promote its interests, efforts that increased as international sanctions took their toll. On social media, it spread propaganda through state-run media or on official social media accounts and largely targeted U.S. policy in the Middle East, disinformation experts said.
This new effort was joined by a common thread: People posed as members of opposition groups who are active online to try to harness their passion and energy in support of Iranian foreign policy. One fake Iranian activist page, Patriotic Palestine Front, pushed memes of Israeli aggression. Another featured Brexit postage stamps including one of a person shooting themselves in the foot.
Facebook did not disclose how many times the posts were shared or liked.
Disinformation experts said to expect many more such efforts, particularly without a decisive response from the United States.
Though slow to recognize this kind of threat, Facebook has tried to shut down Moscow’s influence operations and scrub Kremlin-sponsored campaigns from the giant social network before the midterm elections.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted last week that more revelations of nationstate disinformation campaigns may come to light in coming weeks and months. “I think it’s safe to say we have a number of investigations going on, and we’ll update you when we know more,” he said.
“Everyone has seen that you can manipulate Americans using false personas online. All you need is an internet connection and the ability to speak English.”
Ben Nimmo The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab