Facebook and Twitter say they have suspended or removed hundreds of accounts with links to Iran and Russia due to manipulative behaviour.

In excess of 650 Facebook pages and groups were, according to company founder Mark Zuckerberg, identified as “misleading”. While Facebook clamped down on hundreds of accounts, Twitter also said it had suspended more than 280 accounts with links to Iran.

Earlier this week, Microsoft said it had repulsed significant Russian cyber attacks against conservative groups in the United States.

Social Media Crackdown

On Tuesday the 21st of August, Facebook released a statement saying it had uncovered multiple accounts that appeared to display “inauthentic behaviour”. These accounts have alleged links to campaigns originating in Russia and Iran.

“We ban this kind of behaviour because we want people to be able to trust the connections they make,” Facebook said in a statement.

The company said that while investigations are still ongoing, the campaign appeared to target social media users across multiple internet services in the UK, US, Latin America and the Middle East.

Twitter’s own investigations, the company said, have revealed a concerning campaign of “coordinated manipulation” of social media users in a host of nations.

Cybersecurity Tip-Off

Both social media companies seem to have acted on a tip from FireEye, a US-based cybersecurity company after it revealed a number of accounts promoting Iranian propaganda on both platforms.

In a blog post on its website, FireEye said: “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.

“These operations extend well beyond those conducted by Russia, which has often been the focus of research into information operations over recent years. Our investigation also illustrates how the threat posed by such influence operations continues to evolve, and how similar influence tactics can be deployed irrespective of the particular political or ideological goals being pursued.”

In a statement, Facebook said that upon learning of the accounts on its platform it linked them to Iranian state media; this included around 76 affiliated Instagram accounts. Further misleading behaviour was also traced to Russia, however, the company said that this activity was not linked to the uncovered Iranian campaign.

According to Facebook, some of the campaigns date back to 2011 and featured content on politics in the Middle East. Additionally, the accounts also published content focusing on UK and US politics. The findings of the investigation have been shared with the US and UK governments, the firm said.