Iran-based social media scheme impersonated press and politicians

Facebook removed 51 accounts, 36 pages and seven groups from the social network and another three from Instagram

Stuart Davis, a director at a subsidiary of cybersecurity company FireEye, speaks to journalists in Dubai about Iranian hacking techniques AP

Facebook and Twitter have shut accounts used in an Iran-based campaign to sway public opinion by impersonating reporters, politicians and other influential figures.

Facebook removed 51 accounts, 36 pages and seven groups and another three from Instagram after investigating a tip from internet security firm FireEye, said the social network’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher.

Twitter said it had removed a network of 2,800 inauthentic accounts originating in Iran in early May, but was not privy to the FireEye findings made public on Tuesday.

“Our investigations into these accounts are ongoing,” a Twitter spokeswoman said, declining to discuss details until the analysis was finished.

A network of English-language social media accounts misrepresenting the people was behind them was evidently orchestrated to promote Iranian political interests, said FireEye, a California-based cybersecurity company.

“In addition to utilising fake American personas that espoused both progressive and conservative political stances, some accounts impersonated real American individuals, including a handful of Republican political candidates that ran for House of Representatives seats in 2018,” it said in a blog post.

Those behind the scheme had material published in US and Israeli media outlets, lobbied journalists to cover certain topics and appear to have orchestrated interviews in the US and Britain regarding politics.

It was not immediately clear whether this campaign was related to a broader Iran-based social media influence operation uncovered last year, FireEye said.

“The individuals behind this activity, which also took place on other internet platforms and websites, misled people about who they were and what they were doing,” Mr Gleicher said.

Those actors claimed to be located in the United States or Europe and used fake accounts to run pages or groups while they impersonated legitimate news organisations in the Middle East, Facebook said.

“The individuals behind this activity also represented themselves as journalists or other personas and tried to contact policymakers, reporters, academics, Iranian dissidents and other public figures,” Mr Gleicher said.

Facebook content was posted in English or Arabic. Topics of discussion included public figures, US secessionist movements, Islam, Saudi Arabian influence in the Middle East, and British and American politics.

About 21,000 accounts followed one or more of the Facebook pages, while about 1,900 accounts joined one or more of the groups and about 2,600 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts, Mr Gleicher said.

FireEye said that some accounts in the social media campaign used descriptions in which they claimed to be operated by activists, correspondents or “free journalists”.

“Narratives promoted by these and other accounts in the network included anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian themes,” FireEye said.

Accounts expressed support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

They also opposed the Trump administration’s designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, the cybersecurity firm said.

In Twitter accounts, the network posed as Republican political candidates running in the 2018 US congressional midterms, appropriating photos and plagiarising tweets from legitimate accounts, FireEye said.

Early this year, Facebook said it had taken down hundreds of “inauthentic” accounts from Iran that were part of a vast manipulation campaign operating in more than 20 countries.

The pages were part of a drive to promote Iranian interests in various countries by creating fake identities  pretending to be residents of those nations, Mr Gleicher said at the time.

The operators “typically represented themselves as locals, often using fake accounts, and posted news stories on current events,” including “commentary that repurposed Iranian state media’s reporting on topics like Israel-Palestine relations and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen,” Facebook said.

Facebook has invested heavily in artificial intelligence and staff to stamp out efforts by state actors and others to manipulate the social network using fraudulent accounts.

Late last year, Facebook took down accounts linked to an Iranian bid to influence US and British politics with messages about charged topics such as immigration and race relations.

The social network began looking into these kinds of activities after the exposure of Russian influence campaigns aimed at sowing discord during the 2016 US election.