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The Facebook app logo is displayed on an iPad next to an image of the Facebook logo on an iPhone on August 3, 2016 in London, England.(Photo: Carl Court, Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook has revealed a secret campaign of Iranian disinformation aimed at sowing political discord in the United States over hot issues such as race, immigration, police brutality and President Trump.
The social media giant said Friday it detected the activity of dozens of pages, accounts and groups on Facebook and Instagram at the end of last week, and took steps to isolate its users.
Facebook's announcement, two weeks before the mid-term elections in November, recalled the growing scale and frequency of misinformation operations threatening the United States on social media, some of which were linked to foreign governments, even though that Facebook was adding thousands of new employees and steers technology to eliminate more quickly and eliminate misinformation campaigns.
"We have not found any connection with the Iranian government," Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy, told reporters at a conference call on Friday. He could not say for sure who was behind the operation. The investigation is ongoing and Facebook is working with federal law enforcement, he said.
In August, Facebook revealed a propaganda operation allegedly attributed to the Iranian media, the largest of its kind since Russian agents propagated propaganda to sow political discord during and after the 2016 presidential election. operation was focused on pro-Iranian messaging.
Iran and Russia have denied any involvement in Facebook's misinformation campaigns.
Ben Nimmo, of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, who reviewed 10 Facebook pages and 14 Instagram accounts 12 hours before dismantling them, said the latest Iran campaign targeting the United States and the United Kingdom with pages and news Facebook accounts showed an evolution of tactics by Iran. In this case, the Iranians disguised themselves as leftist Americans in order to amplify divisions on politically charged subjects. A small part of the activity focused on the attacks against Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The Atlantic Council found that some positions targeted the election, either by discussing their own votes or by calling others to vote. Some of the Facebook pages have been followed with a high number of actions. One, called I need justice now (@IneedJusticeNow), has received more than 13 million video views. Another site, No Racism No War (@ Nornowar), has collected more than 412,000 "likes" and nearly half a million followers. Two of the most popular pages have recently been created: @VoiceofChangee, with 113,155 subscribers, and @INeedJusticeNow, with 61,507 subscribers, were created this year on February 3 and April 1, Nimmo said.
The tactics – to induce the indignation of the race and Trump among other burning topics by combining original content and content borrowed from legitimate websites – was borrowed from the Russian misinformation game book, Nimmo said. And they worked: with messages on Facebook and Instagram and Facebook receiving a large number of actions and answers.
"It sounds like an Iranian disinformation operation from Russian operations," said Nimmo.
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Iran has maintained 30 pages, 33 accounts and three groups on Facebook and 16 accounts on Instagram, the company said. Some 1 million Facebook accounts have followed at least one of the pages, about 25,000 Facebook accounts have joined at least one of the groups and more than 28,000 accounts have followed at least one of the Instagram accounts.
Less than $ 100 was spent on two paid ads in US and Canadian dollars in US dollars and on Facebook and Instagram. The first announcement was released in June 2016 and the second in January 2018.
Facebook said it had not completed its review of Iranian content, but the pages associated with it have hosted seven events. Gleicher declined to say how many people saw the publications or indicated that they were interested in attending events.
Nimmo said that unlike the previous activity that aimed to direct Facebook users to websites, this part of the campaign was focused on social media.
The foreign policy posts of the Facebook and Instagram accounts were in line with the pro-Iranian government's messages on the Middle East during a previous Facebook-related operation by the Iranian media, said the Council of the United States. ;Atlantic.
In August, Facebook revealed that people with links to the Iranian media had created social network accounts under false names to target liberal groups, such as supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. United or Scottish separatists in the United Kingdom.
In August, an article published by the US on social media revealed that social media had aroused resentment at topics as passionate as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, immigration and the British vote in favor of the exit of the European Union. They also broadcast pro-Iranian messages alongside anti-Trump messages or messages supporting Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labor Party of the British opposition.
The goal of this campaign is to divert the political conversation to promote anti-Israeli, anti-Saudi and pro-Palestinian themes as well as Tehran's interests around the world, including US-friendly politics. Iran, like a nuclear deal, that Trump canceled in May. this had lifted the sanctions, researchers told USA TODAY.
More: These are the liberal memes used by Iran to target Americans on Facebook
More: Facebook foils campaigns of political influence originating from Iran and Russia before the United States at mid-term
Here are some examples of Facebook ads:
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