Facebook removed Iranian accounts operating in Israel

During October, Facebook removed hundreds of fake Iranian accounts on Facebook and Instagram, which operated in Israel and the United States and tried to influence public opinion in them.

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The report details the activities of networks that disseminated false information and acted to change public opinion in many countries. In total, Facebook has identified 14 such networks around the world in the past month – 2 of which focused their activities in Israel. Originated, according to the report, in Iran. One of them encouraged the demonstrations against Netanyahu and acted to ignite them. The second dealt with the US presidential election, and also operated in America at the same time.

Among the posts published:

Twelve Facebook accounts and 2 pages, as well as 307 Instagram accounts, were removed this month, after it became clear that they were linked to a communications company operating in Tehran – and directing its activities to Israel and Iraq. Most users have undergone significant name changes while operating – indicating that they are unreliable.

They published water, pictures and other content in Hebrew and Arabic, focusing on Israeli and Iraqi current affairs. Meanwhile, they also referred to demonstrations against Netanyahu – and criticized his handling of the corona crisis. The network managed to gain a relatively small audience until it was removed – about 1,000 users followed their Facebook pages and about 9,000 people followed all Instagram accounts.

Another removed network counted 12 Facebook accounts, 6 pages and 11 Instagram accounts linked to the Iranian administration. The investigation of this network began following intelligence provided to Facebook by theFBI. The network focused mainly on the United States and Israel, and published false content related to the presidential election – as part of a civic influence campaign on the subject.

The investigation also pointed to old pages linked to the network – which had already been deleted by Facebook in the past – after they published false information about a massacre allegedly committed by Saudi Arabia during the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Israel. This network had even more limited network exposure; 120 accounts were exposed to content on Facebook and another 700 in total were exposed to it on Instagram.

In the past month, Facebook has located a total of 14 networks that operated in different parts of the world. They were launched from Georgia, Ukraine, Myanmar, USA, Egypt, Mexico and Iran – and targeted foreign audiences outside their country. In the last month alone, the company has deleted a total of 1,196 Facebook accounts, 994 Instagram accounts and 110 fake groups.

Facebook is facing greater criticism and pressure than ever for allowing foreign interference in election campaigns in recent years and not mimicking such content. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, even admitted that the network needs to do much more on the subject.

The Facebook company stated in the report that it is working to remove fake accounts and malicious content on the network. As part of that effort, Facebook aims to stop campaigns of non-authentic accounts that try to adversely affect public discourse for the sake of achieving a strategic goal. When the company identifies online and non-governmental organizations that try to mislead the public and change its positions through fake accounts, it removes them immediately, according to the report.