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Facebook Removes Iranian Network That Was Spreading Disinformation
Facebook Removes Iranian Network That Was Spreading Disinformation
(about 2 hours later)
SAN FRANCISCO — Last year, when Facebook disclosed a sweeping, coordinated disinformation campaign carried out by Russian agents, the company presented the first evidence of a new kind of information warfare.
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said on Friday that it had identified and removed a new influence network that originated in Iran and that was spreading disinformation to people in the United States and Britain.
Now mischief makers in other countries appear to be following the Russian playbook.
The company said it took down more than 82 pages, groups and accounts, including 30 Facebook pages, 33 Instagram accounts and three separate Facebook groups. Facebook said it discovered the activity last week and began an investigation. More than one million users in the United States and Britain followed the accounts.
Facebook said on Friday that it had identified and removed a new influence network that had originated in Iran. It was the second time this year that a disinformation effort targeting people in the United States and Britain had been tied to Iranians.
The accounts frequently posted about politically charged topics, such as race relations and political candidates, the company said. Some of the posts also discussed President Trump and race-related protests in the United States. Less than $100 was spent on two separate ads by the person or people behind the network, the company said, and those were paid for in American and Canadian dollars.
The company took down more than 82 pages, groups and accounts, including 30 Facebook pages, 33 Instagram accounts and three Facebook groups, it said. About one million users in the United States and Britain followed those accounts.
“While we have found no ties to the Iranian government at this point, we can’t say for sure who is responsible,” Nathaniel Gleicher, head of Facebook’s cybersecurity policy, said in a conference call with reporters on Friday.
The latest disinformation campaign, which Facebook said was discovered last week, was much smaller than the Russia-linked information operations before and after the 2016 presidential election. Back then, millions of Facebook and Instagram users viewed divisive ads and disinformation that investigators say were created with the aim of widening political and social divisions among Americans.
Facebook said it was working with British and American officials on the discovery, had informed Congress and was working with other technology companies to identify who was behind the behavior.
But the type of material released on Friday was remarkably similar. The Iran-linked accounts frequently posted about emotionally charged topics like race relations and President Trump.
The removals were the latest example of an influence campaign on Facebook, a type of activity that the company has moved to disclose more quickly as it finds false pages, groups and accounts that are distributing false content. In August, Facebook said it found new influence operations that originated in Iran and Russia. This month, the company said it had identified and taken down 559 pages and 251 accounts run by Americans, many of which amplified false and misleading content in a coordinated fashion.
The posts — or memes, as they are often called — hit other hot buttons. One included the quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who became a lightning rod for conservative criticism when he protested police violence against black Americans by kneeling during the national anthem before National Football League games. Another, oddly, featured photos of the actor Tom Hanks manipulated so he appeared to be wearing shirts imprinted with various protest slogans.
Several of the accounts identified by Facebook that were removed on Friday had ties to Iranian state media and pushed opinions aligned with pro-government positions, the company said. The company also said some of the accounts that were taken down had links to the influence network uncovered in August, but did not have the same connection to the Iranian state.
“The Russian playbook is out in the open,” Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat of Virginia, said in a statement. “Social media companies are going to have to be more proactive, and Congress is going to have to step up and enact some guardrails so that disinformation and misinformation aren’t able to flourish so readily on these platforms.”
In August, Facebook said it had found another influence operation that originated in Iran and Russia. And the company said this month that it had taken down 559 pages and 251 accounts run by Americans, many of which amplified false and misleading content in a coordinated fashion.
Facebook officials did not say on Friday how they had traced the latest batch of disinformation accounts to Iran and added that investigators had not tied them directly to the Iranian government. The company is working with British and American officials and other technology companies on its investigation.
But several of the accounts had ties to Iranian state media and pushed opinions aligned with pro-government positions, the company said. Some also had links to the influence network uncovered in August.
Less than $100 was spent on two separate ads by the person or people behind the influence operation, and those were paid for in American and Canadian dollars, the company said. That suggests that culprits have moved beyond relying on Facebook advertising to increase the spread of disinformation, said Renee DiResta, director of research at New Knowledge, an organization that studies disinformation campaigns.
The posts meant for British users took both sides in the country’s political debates. One post was a meme critical of Prime Minister Theresa May, for example, while another was supportive of the opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Similar messages were part of the cache removed by Facebook last month.
The British authorities have worried about foreigners spreading divisive messages online after the country’s vote to leave the European Union. Last week, a parliamentary committee published evidence that an anonymous group had been advertising on Facebook to undermine Ms. May’s strategy for negotiating an exit from Europe.
Those revelations have fueled concerns in Europe that the region is quickly becoming a routine target for foreign propaganda, including around the European parliamentary elections scheduled for May. France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and other members of the European Union have all been grappling with how to combat online misinformation.
Calls in Washington for possible regulation of Facebook have grown louder over the past year. The company does not prohibit false news, but prohibits “inauthentic accounts” — when users misrepresent their identities or create legions of automated bots to spread divisive messages.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has described battling the influence campaigns as an “arms race,” and close watchers of the campaigns believe tactics are evolving quickly. The accounts disclosed on Friday appeared to post fewer blatantly pro-Iranian messages than in August, according to a study conducted by the Atlantic Council, a think tank focused on international affairs.
“Their behavior showed how much they had adapted from earlier operations, focusing more on social media than third-party websites and becoming much more engaging,” according to a blog post from Ben Nimmo and Graham Brookie, researchers from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab. “It is vital to understand the evolution of this threat, to ensure that responses to it also evolve.”
