Small Wars Journal

Facebook and Twitter Disable New Disinformation Campaign with Ties to Iran

Tue, 06/04/2019 - 6:36am

Facebook and Twitter Disable New Disinformation Campaign with Ties to Iran by Tony Room – Washington Post

Facebook and Twitter each said on Tuesday they had disabled a sprawling disinformation campaign that appeared to originate in Iran, including two accounts on Twitter that mimicked Republican congressional candidates and may have sought to push pro-Iranian political messages.

Some of the disabled accounts appeared to target their propaganda at specific journalists, policymakers, dissidents and other influential U.S. figures online. Those tactics left experts fearful that it could mark a new escalation in social-media warfare, with malicious actors stealing real-world identities to spread disinformation beyond the web.

Twitter said it had removed about 2,800 accounts originating in Iran at the beginning of May, but it did not tie the accounts to the country’s government. Its disclosure came at the same time as a report from the cybersecurity firm FireEye that identified a “network of English-language social media accounts” on the site that often posted on “anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian themes.”…

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