Fri 21 January 2022:
In a review of its 2021 enforcement actions, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta said on Thursday that it deactivated more than 130 accounts from the two platforms during the months of December for suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior.
We removed eight Facebook accounts and 126 Instagram accounts from Iran that primarily targeted audiences in the UK, with a focus on Scotland. We found this activity as a result of our internal investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior in the region,” Meta said.
According to Meta, the accounts were investigated and linkages to individuals in Iran were discovered, including some with an experience in teaching English as a second language.
According to Meta, the network used bogus accounts to impersonate locals in England and Scotland, uploading photos and memes about current events as well as criticism of the UK government.
According to the firm, the accounts provided commentary about Scottish independence and arranged their content around popular hashtags advocating the cause, though they occasionally misspelled them.
It said the operation had some ties to a tiny Iran-based network it shut down in December 2020, which largely used bogus accounts to target Arabic, French, and English-speaking audiences, but it didn’t go into depth about who might be behind it.
Meta argued that coordinated inauthentic behavior is a systemic effort to sway public opinion for a strategic aim, and that phony accounts are at the heart of the operation.
“We’ve seen a range of operations coming from Iran over the last few years,” said Ben Nimmo, Meta’s global threat intelligence lead for influence operations, in a press briefing. “It’s not a monolithic
In December, the company said it eliminated accounts from Mexico that were targeting audiences in other Latin American nations, as well as accounts from Turkey that were primarily targeting Libyans.
The company claims it strives to stop such conduct in the context of non-government campaigns in the United States and when it occurs on behalf of foreign governments.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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