Facebook, Twitter dismantle campaigns tied to Iran, Russia

Washington : Facebook and Twitter unveiled fresh crackdowns on misinformation campaigns from Russia and Iran as analysts warned of more efforts to manipulate public debate ahead of the November US elections. Facebook announced late Tuesday that it removed more than 650 pages, groups and accounts identified as “networks of accounts misleading people about what they were doing,” according to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Separately, Twitter said it suspended 284 accounts “for engaging in coordinated manipulation,” adding that “it appears many of these accounts originated from Iran.”

Moscow repeated its denial of any effort to manipulate social media firms. There was no immediate comment from Tehran on the crackdown. Both social networks said they were working with law enforcement and stepping up security. The Facebook action was prompted by research from cybersecurity firm FireEye regarding a collection of “Liberty Front Press” pages on the social network and other online services. “The activity we have uncovered highlights that multiple actors continue to engage in and experiment with online, social media-driven influence operations as a means of shaping political discourse,” FireEye said in a statement.

“These operations extend well beyond those conducted by Russia, which has often been the focus of research into information operations over recent years.” In Moscow, a government spokesman denied any manipulation campaign, telling journalists that “we don’t understand what the basis is” for the accusations. The actions by Facebook and Twitter come days after Microsoft said it seized websites linked to Russian intelligence that sought to meddle in US political debate. For Facebook, it was the second time in less than a month that it acted against manipulation, following the shutdown in late July of 32 fake pages and accounts involved in an apparent coordinated effort to stoke hot-button issues ahead of November midterm US elections.