NEW YORK — Facebook announced Wednesday morning that it had removed a small network of fake social media accounts it said were run from Iran and were posting about US politics.
The takedown is the latest in a series of moves by Silicon Valley to crack down on covert information campaigns run from Iran that use fake accounts and pose as Americans.
Last month CNN exclusively reported how “American Herald Tribune,” a purportedly independent online media outlet, originated in Iran.
In a company post about Wednesday’s takedown, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, wrote that the Iranian accounts “shared posts about political news and geopolitics including topics like the US elections, Christianity, US-Iran relations, US immigration policy, criticism of US policies in the Middle East, public figures, as well as video interviews with academics, public figures, and columnists on issues related to Iran and US elections.”
Examples of the purportedly Iranian posts shared by Facebook include one criticizing former Trump national security adviser John Bolton.
Facebook removed six Facebook accounts and five Instagram accounts it said were part of the network. Only 60 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts, Facebook said.
Facebook also announced Wednesday that it had taken down a network of accounts targeting Ukraine that the company said was linked to Russian military intelligence.
Facebook also removed a network of accounts targeting people in Myanamar that it said was linked to two telecom companies.