Twitter also removed over 700.
Facebook’s cybersecurity team today said it identified and removed hundreds of accounts associated with fake accounts originating in Iran.
The company revealed it removed 783 pages, groups, accounts and events aimed at spreading misinformation related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other issues such as ongoing conflicts in Syria and Yemen and countries involved in them, including the U. S. and Russia.
The Iran-based accounts, which were disguised to look like users in countries from Afghanistan and Albania to Spain and Syria, date back as far as 2010, and about 2 million accounts followed at least one of these pages. Along with the efforts on Facebook’s flagship app, Iran-linked fake accounts were also found on Instagram, where 254,000 users followed at least one of 162 accounts. In addition, Facebook said the misinformation campaigns spent as much as $30,000 on ads across Facebook and Instagram. However, the company said it didn’t know how many users these ads reached.
Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity, said the company wasn’t able to identify a motive for the misinformation campaigns.
