Facebook announced today that it has disabled several hundred profiles and pages of its social network and Instagram originating in Iran and Russia that were allegedly involved in several disinformation campaigns.
“Today we eliminated multiple pages, groups and accounts for coordinated and false behavior on Facebook and Instagram, part of this activity originated in Iran and part originated in Russia, they were different campaigns and we have not identified any link or coordination between them”, said today Facebook in a press release.
The social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg was at the center of the controversy in the US presidential election of 2016 for the use of its platform to spread hoaxes and false news to influence the results.
At the end of July, Facebook announced that it had deactivated 32 accounts and pages on its social network and on Instagram (a social network owned by Facebook) that were coordinated in an alleged disinformation campaign identified a few months after the November celebrations. mid-term legislative elections.
“It is a continuous challenge because the responsible people (of these campaigns) are determined and well financed, we have to constantly improve to go one step ahead,” the company added today.
Facebook detailed that they have eliminated 652 pages, groups and accounts originating in Iran that were addressed to Internet users in the United States, Latin America, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
The technology giant claimed to have found, for example, links between Iran’s public media and alleged disinformation accounts grouped under a network called “Liberty Front Press.”
Apart from this research that points to Iran, Facebook also said that it has removed pages, groups and accounts from its network related to Russian military services.
Facebook did not specify how many profiles it has eliminated in this regard, but it did clarify that this activity originating in Russia is not related to the one identified from Iran.
