Facebook, Twitter remove pages promoting Iranian propaganda

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc said on Tuesday that they each removed about 300 accounts, mostly originating in Iran, that were found to be engaged in coordinated "inauthentic behaviour."

The social media companies acted on a tip from cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc , which said on Tuesday that the accounts were promoting Iranian propaganda, including discussion of "anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian themes."

"We’ve removed 652 Pages, groups and accounts for coordinated inauthentic behaviour that originated in Iran and targeted people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, UK and US," Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, said in a blog post.

Twitter called the effort "coordinated manipulation."

The influence effort, as FireEye described it, began last year and continued through this month, the company said in a blog post. 

"However, it is important to note that the activity does not appear to have been specifically designed to influence the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, as it extends well beyond U.S. audiences and US politics," FireEye said.

The account removals comes weeks after Facebook took down accounts originating in Russia for engaging in deceiving behaviour. The company said on Tuesday that it found additional inauthentic behaviour tied to Russia, but that the activity does not appear linked to the campaign tied to Iran.