Facebook deletes 652 fake accounts targeting world politics
San Francisco, Aug 22: Facebook has removed 652 fake accounts for "coordinated inauthentic behaviour" that originated in Iran and Russia and targeted people across multiple Internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, Britain and the US.
According to Facebook, some of the fake Pages, groups and accounts originated in Iran and some in Russia.
"We're still investigating, and we have shared what we know with the US and UK governments. Since there are US sanctions involving Iran, we've also briefed the US Treasury and State Departments," Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook, said in a statement on Tuesday.
These sanctions allow companies to provide people Internet services for personal communications, including the government and its affiliates.
"But Facebook takes steps to prevent people in Iran and other sanctioned countries from using our ad tools," said Gleicher.
Facebook also removed Pages, groups and accounts that can be linked to sources the US government has previously identified as Russian military intelligence services.
"While these are some of the same bad actors we removed for cybersecurity attacks before the 2016 US election, this more recent activity focused on politics in Syria and Ukraine," Facebook said.
For example, these accounts are associated with Inside Syria Media Centre, which the Atlantic Council and other organisations have identified for covertly spreading pro-Russian and pro-Assad content.
"We're working closely with US law enforcement on this investigation, and we appreciate their help. These investigations are ongoing - and given the sensitivity we aren't sharing more information about what we removed," Facebook added.
Facebook acted on these accounts after FireEye, a global cybersecurity firm, gave it information in July about "Liberty Front Press", a network of Facebook Pages as well as accounts on other online services.
Based on FireEye's tip, Facebook started an investigation into "Liberty Front Press" and identified additional accounts and Pages from their network.
"We are able to link this network to Iranian state media through publicly available website registration information, as well as the use of related IP addresses and Facebook Pages sharing the same admins," Facebook informed.
The first "Liberty Front Press" accounts were created in 2013. Some of these attempted to conceal their location, and primarily posted political content focused on the Middle East, as well as the UK, US, and Latin America.
Beginning in 2017, they increased their focus on the UK and US.
Accounts and Pages linked to "Liberty Front Press" typically posed as news and civil society organisations sharing information in multiple countries without revealing their true identity, said Facebook.
Facebook recently deleted 32 Pages and accounts attempting to influence the US mid-term election
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Bypoll results will decide the future of Congress in Karnataka: BJP leader Ashoka
Bengaluru (PTI): Leader of Opposition BJP in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka said the results of the bypolls in Davanagere South and Bagalkote assembly constituencies will decide the future of the ruling Congress in the state.
The bypolls were necessitated following the demise of sitting Congress MLAs Shamanur Shivashankarappa and H Y Meti, who represented Davanagere South and Bagalkote constituencies respectively.
The ruling Congress has fielded Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s grandson and Karnataka Minister S S Mallikarjun’s son Samarth Shamanur in Davanagere South and Umesh Meti in Bagalkote, who are locked in a direct contest with BJP candidates T Dasakariyappa and Veerabhadrayya Charantimath.
According to Ashoka, there is a contest between the poor and the rich in the upcoming bypolls, scheduled on April 9.
"The Congress will lose this election, and the future of the state will be decided. Since Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said ‘Make the poor win’, the BJP has fielded poor candidates,” the BJP leader said in a press conference.
In Davanagere, the BJP has given a ticket to an ordinary person, whereas Congress has given tickets to powerful and influential people. In Bagalkote, there is a very good opinion about the BJP candidate, he claimed.
According to him, the Congress has given space to dynastic politics in both places. Therefore, the BJP has a strong chance of winning in both constituencies.
The LoP said if the Congress candidate wins in Davanagere, it is understood that Muslims will not get opportunities in the future, and therefore, Muslims are opposing the Congress party.
He also charged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who talks about uniting backward classes, has not given a ticket to backward class candidates.
