Facebook Pulls Hundreds of Fake Accounts Engaged in Coordinated Influence Campaign -- 2d Update
August 21 2018 - 9:23PM
Dow Jones News
By Deepa Seetharaman and Dustin Volz
Facebook Inc. dismantled a new set of influence campaigns
originating in Iran and Russia designed to sow division in global
politics, part of the social-media company's broader purge of bad
actors on its site.
Those originating in Iran, a total of 652 pages and accounts,
were flagged for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" and targeted
internet services in the U.S., Middle East, U.K. and Latin America.
The activity appears to reflect increasing attempts by the Iranian
regime to push its geopolitical agenda through online
subterfuge.
Facebook separately took down an unspecified number of accounts
and pages that it said originated in Russia. While much of Russia's
alleged activity on Facebook in the past has centered on U.S.
social issues, the bad actors identified in the latest purge were
focused on politics in Syria and Ukraine.
Facebook said it found no evidence the campaigns by Russia and
Iran were connected.
"We've been investigating some of these campaigns for months
now, which highlights the tension we face in every investigation
between removing bad actors quickly and improving our defenses over
time," Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said during a hastily
scheduled conference call with reporters late Tuesday. "Because if
we remove them too early, it's harder to understand their playbook
and the extent of their network. It can also make it harder for law
enforcement."
Mr. Zuckerberg said the action announced Tuesday reflected the
firm's newfound approach to finding and stamping out fake activity.
"The shift we made from reactive to proactive detection is a big
change, and it's going to make Facebook safer for everyone over
time," he told reporters.
Facebook's allegation that the offenders were tied to Russia and
Iran marks a departure from last month when it announced a purge of
32 pages and was reluctant to assign responsibility for the content
it pulled from the platform. On Tuesday, executives reiterated they
couldn't attribute last month's campaign to any actor.
"We're still investigating and there's a lot that we don't know
yet," Mr. Zuckerberg said. "As a company, we don't have all the
investigative tools and intelligence that governments have, which
makes it hard to always attribute a particular abuse to particular
countries or groups."
Facebook's new disclosures come just a day after Microsoft Corp
said Russian hackers linked to the 2016 election cyberattacks on
the Democratic Party are broadening their efforts to target U.S.
politics ahead of the midterms to include well-connected
conservative groups.
Facebook first learned about a network of bogus Iranian pages
from U.S.-based cybersecurity firm FireEye. Using FireEye's tip,
Facebook said it was able to identify additional accounts and pages
that were spreading disinformation and link the activity to Iranian
state media by checking against website registration information,
among other indicators.
Some of the Iranian accounts and pages were created as far back
as 2011, Facebook said.
Facebook officials were reticent to speculate on motive of the
Iranian or Russian campaigns during a press call with reporters.
Lee Foster, a researcher with FireEye who worked on the Iran
investigation, said the pages sought to promote Tehran's interests,
including "anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian
themes."
Facebook executives said they expect to find more bad activity.
"We have a number of investigations going on, and we'll update you
when we know more," Mr. Zuckerberg said.
FireEye said it also identified suspicious behavior on
Twitter.
In a tweet posted to a corporate account, Twitter said on
Tuesday that it has suspended 284 accounts "for engaging in
coordinated manipulation."
It "appears many of these accounts originated from Iran," the
Twitter message states.
A Twitter spokesman declined to comment further, saying the
company will post further updates when it has more to say.
Iran for years has been seen as increasingly adept at using
social media to deploy phishing schemes or other malicious acts,
often relying on elaborately created fake online personas to
ensnare targets, according to cybersecurity researchers. The
country is frequently cited by U.S. intelligence officials as among
the four most hostile and advanced nation-state cyberthreats
alongside Russia, China and North Korea.
Facebook said it had shared its findings with both the U.S. and
British governments on the Iranian activity and the U.S. treasury
and state departments about Iran's activity.
Senator Richard Burr (R., N.C.), who chairs the Senate
Intelligence Committee that has been investigating online influence
operations, said that Facebook's disclosure further reflected that
foreign actors wanted to use social media to sow political discord
and that "Russia is not the only hostile foreign actor developing
this capability."
Mr. Burr said he intended to discuss the foreign operations with
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, when she
testified before his panel in early September.
--Robert McMillan contributed to this article.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 21, 2018 22:08 ET (02:08 GMT)
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