{"id":3538,"date":"2018-08-22T18:24:20","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T14:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/?p=3538"},"modified":"2018-08-22T18:24:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T14:24:20","slug":"facebook-and-twitter-delete-hundreds-of-fake-accounts-linked-to-iran-and-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/2018\/08\/22\/facebook-and-twitter-delete-hundreds-of-fake-accounts-linked-to-iran-and-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook and Twitter delete hundreds of fake accounts linked to Iran and Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Facebook and Twitter have taken down hundreds of fake accounts and pages linked to Iran and Russia after finding a series of campaigns aimed at meddling in UK and US politics.<\/p>\n

The Iranian accounts targeted internet users in Britain and America and were followed by more than one\u00a0million people. They\u00a0bought thousands of dollars worth of adverts in what researchers said was an attempt to spread pro-Iranian messages.<\/p>\n

Facebook\u00a0revealed\u00a0on Tuesday night that it had suspended 652 pages, groups and accounts across Facebook and Instagram that were linked to \u201cIranian state media\u201d, after finding evidence of \u201cco-ordinated inauthentic behaviour\u201d across the accounts.<\/p>\n

Separately, Twitter said it had suspended 284 accounts that it believed originate in Iran.<\/p>\n

Facebook, which has fought a lengthy battle with state-sponsored attempts to meddle in Western elections, also said it had removed several accounts linked to the Russian military.<\/p>\n

The company said it had briefed both the British and American governments.<\/p>\n

Facebook said it uncovered three separate networks of accounts centred around an organisation called\u00a0\u201cLiberty Front Press\u201d, which it linked to Iranian state media through records on website registration.<\/p>\n

Combined, the 652 accounts had 1.04 million followers and dated back as far as 2011. They had bought $12,000 (\u00a39,300) of adverts, but masked their origin by paying in US dollars, Australian dollars, Turkish lira and Indian rupees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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T<\/span>he pages and accounts often shared material about politics in the Middle East but increasingly focused on the UK and US in recent years.<\/p>\n

B<\/span>oth Facebook and Twitter were tipped off by FireEye, a cybersecurity company.\u00a0FireEye said\u00a0the networks had been used to \u201cpromote Iranian political interests, including anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian themes, as well as to promote support for specific US policies favorable to Iran, such as the US-Iran nuclear deal\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It added: \u201cIn the context of the US-focused activity, this also includes significant anti-Trump messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes just weeks after\u00a0Facebook removed 32 pages\u00a0after uncovering a campaign to influence social media users ahead of US mid-term elections later this year.<\/p>\n

While Facebook\u2019s efforts to combat foreign political meddling have largely focused on Russia, the Iranian campaign suggested its problems were much wider, FireEye said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese operations extend well beyond those conducted by Russia, which has often been the focus of research into information operations over recent years,\u201d the cybersecurity company said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur investigation also illustrates how the threat posed by such influence operations continues to evolve, and how similar influence tactics can be deployed irrespective of the particular political or ideological goals being pursued.\u201d<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Telegraph<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook and Twitter have taken down hundreds of fake accounts and pages linked to Iran and Russia after finding a series of campaigns aimed at meddling in UK and US politics. The Iranian accounts targeted internet users in Britain and America and were followed by more than one\u00a0million people. They\u00a0bought thousands of dollars worth of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3540,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538\/revisions\/3540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}