Facebook has removed fack accounts over 1 million followers
Facebook says it’s deleted
accounts originating in Iran that featured posts on politically divisive topics
and attracted quite 1 million followers in Britain and the U.S.
The social media company
removed 82 pages, teams and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that painted
themselves as being from American or British citizens, then posted on
"politically charged" topics like race relations, opposition to
United State President Donald Trump and immigration, Facebooks head of
cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said in a blog post.
The deleted accounts painted
themselves as being American or British and mostly targeted United State
liberals, consistent with the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab,
a company that works with Facebook to review propaganda on-line.
While the accounts originated in Iran, it had been
unclear if they were coupled to the Tehran government, consistent to Facebook, that
shared the data with researchers, different technology firms and the British
and United State governments.
Saudi
Arabia and Israel are each declared enemies of Iran. While the accounts
originated in Iran, Facebook said it had been unclear if they were coupled to
the Tehran government.
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The action follows takedowns of many accounts couplled to Iranian propaganda efforts by Facebook, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc.
Social media firms have more and more targeted foreign interference on their platforms following criticism that they didn’t do enough to sight, halt and disclose Russian efforts to use their platforms to influence the result of the 2016 US presidential race.
Iran and Russia country have denied allegations that they have used social media platforms to launch dis-information campaigns. In August, Facebook, in conjuction with Twitter and Google, removed many accounts linked to Iran country.