Facebook said it has taken down nearly 800 fake pages and accounts from Iran
The 783 fake accounts were falsely representing themselves as locals to users in various countries, mostly focusing on the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, the company said on a Thursday press call.
These fake accounts shared news stories and commentary about current events, including Israel-Palestine relations and conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
Looking at some examples Facebook provided, the posts from these accounts seem to back political views in line with the Iranian governments positions on foreign affairs.
Facebook said a more detailed report about the nature of the posts will be released by the independent Atlantic Council shortly.
The company could not confirm that the posts were created by the Iranian government, but did say that they included commentary that was repurposed by Iranian state media.
And in April, the company took down 170 accounts from the Internet Research Agency, an organization with ties to the Russian government.
The announcement comes at a time when the European Union is expected to bypass US-imposed sanctions with Iran and restart trade, despite President Trumps urging Congress to remain tough on the country. The fact that Facebook is finding accounts tied to Iran guilty of inauthentic behavior on their platform probably wont help negotiations.
Twitter also revealed today that it took down thousands of bad-actor accounts on its platform with ties to Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.
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