Facebook bans networks, three originating in Iran and one in Russia, running “inauthentic” accounts, Pages, and Groups misleading US and Latin American users
many of the accounts claimed to be run from swing states pic.twitter.com/pmpLN7LsEf Donie O'Sullivan / @donie : Accounts with usernames like http://black.queen.chloe and michigan_black_community_ looked like they were run by black activists. There were also pro and anti-Trump accounts, and accounts posing as feminists, LGBTQ rights advocates, and environmentalists. Donie O'Sullivan / @donie : Breaking this afternoon: Russian trolls set their sights on @JoeBiden https://www.cnn.com/... pic.twitter.com/hPpMeE9O26 @darth : at some point everyone just moved on from “of course there was no russian influence during the 2016 election that is crazy” to “we will see that same russian influence in the 2020 elections” https://twitter.com/... Ed Bott / @edbott : “People linked to the Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-backed troll group indicted by the United States for its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, are laying the groundwork to do the same in 2020...” https://twitter.com/... Ian Sams / @iansams : Russia is interfering in 2020 and they're dividing on race. “Among the accounts focused on black activism, there was a moderate amount of content opposing Kamala Harris. Harris' record as a California DA was mentioned as a reason to oppose her candidacy” https://www.cnn.com/... Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy : “The Russian trolls who used social media to interfere in the 2016 election employed a similar tactic, going after Hillary Clinton from the right and also trying to spread a perception on the left that Clinton was not liberal enough...” https://twitter.com/... Adam Rawnsley / @arawnsley : Looks like Facebook did a mopping up operation from the folks reusing the Liberty Front Press creds and infrastructure for disinfo stuff in West Africa and Latin America. Tsk tsk. Laziness gets you nowhere, trolls. https://newsroom.fb.com/... Donie O'Sullivan / @donie : #BREAK Biden a top Russian target online, new Facebook data shows http://www.cnn.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : Feeling good about the prediction that multiple foreign actors will be involved with an initial focus on the Dem primary. That would be the natural use of left-leaning IG personas: to amplify discontent and disunity among minor-candidate supporters. https://www.lawfareblog.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : The IRA accounts seem to hit their classic racial themes, although with an Instagram focus. This has been the obvious trend since the 2018 midterms. The cross-posting of Twitter content is interesting and we'll see if we get an announcement from Twitter soon. https://twitter.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : Using AOC as a figurehead to manipulate Latin American countries (in this case, Venezuela per the 4 Febrero name) is a new twist, and a good example of how we can't consider these campaigns in the context of only one country. https://twitter.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : This is right out of the IRA playbook: create a fake group with strong ethnic affinity, build an audience with clickbait and then inject stories tied to your actual objectives. Going from “America's Racist Presidents” to a story about the Iranian FM is a bit ham-handed. https://twitter.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : Some insta-reactions: 1) Iranian accounts show their traditional regional focus but also an expansion into trying to influence US politics directly. https://twitter.com/... Rat King / @mikeisaac : here's a page with examples of the types of content Iran/Russia were spreading https://newsroom.fb.com/... there's no specific ideology or intent, it seems, beyond sowing discord israel/palestine conflict content posts on AOC race-related news items Peter Kafka / @pkafka : Facebook boots Russian and Iranian groups for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” — pushing fake news and fake users. https://www.vox.com/... See also Mediagazer
FacebookNathaniel Gleicher
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second consecutive October that Facebook has announced an Iran-origin influence-op takedown aimed at US audiences — last year it removed 82 Pages, groups, and accounts for coordinated inauthentic behavior originating in Iran, and today's sweep extends that playbook to Latin American targets plus a Russia-linked network. The tradecraft described — personas like black activists, feminists, LGBTQ advocates, and both pro- and anti-Trump voices claiming swing-state origins — echoes the exploitation of Groups tooling flagged in the Mueller indictment's warning about bad actors abusing Groups.
The timing matters: Facebook announced its more prominent fact-check labels and a ban on ads suggesting voting is pointless the same day, so the takedown lands inside a broader pre-election credibility push. It also caps a two-year detection arc that began when Facebook said it was improving pattern-based detection after the US election amplification efforts surfaced in 2017.
First-order effects
Four networks — three Iranian, one Russian — lose their Pages, Groups, and accounts outright, ending their direct access to US and Latin American audiences they were misleading under activist and political personas.
Users who engaged with these personas, including accounts styled as black community organizers referencing specific states, are exposed as having interacted with foreign-run inauthentic identities rather than domestic activists.
Second-order effects
The repeat appearance of Iran-linked operations a year after the 82-page removal forces Facebook to treat this as recurring enforcement rather than a one-off cleanup, sustaining pressure on its Groups product — the feature the Mueller indictment showed is easiest for bad actors to build and promote through.
Same-day moves like the fact-check labeling announcement show Facebook bundling takedowns with visible policy changes to preempt regulator and press criticism during the election window.
Third-order effects
If troll-farm reach keeps outpacing takedowns, enforcement shifts from removing individual networks to limiting distribution itself — foreshadowed by Facebook's later internal finding that Eastern European troll farms reached 140M US users monthly before the 2020 election, with most exposure coming to people who never followed those Pages.
Identity-mimicry of real domestic constituencies (activist groups, swing-state communities) points toward structural verification and provenance pressures on social platforms, where the battleground becomes proving who is authentic rather than deleting what is not.
The trend: State-linked influence operations have become a standing, seasonal enforcement category for Facebook, with Iran and Russia operators recycling persona playbooks faster than platform takedowns can close the gap between removal and reach.
Dozens of new websites “appear to be Michigan local news outlets,” but are full of conservative political content, @thompsoncarolk reports. The issue is the trickery - making the sites seem like local papers, with similar names, etc, @MattMillerLSJ says https://www.lansingstatejo…
“People linked to the IRA, the Kremlin-backed troll group indicted by the United States for its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, are laying the groundwork to do the same in 2020, new info released by Facebook on Monday suggests.” https://www.cnn.com/...
fascinating. This is exactly what the European far-right did in Italy and Spain, created fake “local” websites with conspiratorial content. Now being brought to you in the US as well. https://twitter.com/...
We are in for the Super Bowl of disinformation this year. When it costs nothing to open a website and make it look and sound like news, there's no barrier to entry for people looking to confuse, deflect and change the narrative. https://twitter.com/...
Russia's Troll Farm Is Kind of Sh*tting the Bed on Facebook Facebook's recent crusade against foreign meddling means Russia's Internet Research Agency is struggling to get a foothold ahead of 2020.-By @kpoulsen https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ...
Facebook has just removed more accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic activity, including Instagram and FB accounts linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA). The accounts “had the hallmarks of a well-resourced operation.” 1/ http://newsroom.fb.com/...
Pay attention ppl. Those warnings that Russian interference continues weren't a drill. This point is esp impt & consistent w/overt Russian messaging we see 👇 “The operation demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the schisms within the Dem Party.” https://www.washingtonpost…
Today Facebook removed four separate networks of accounts emanating from Iran & Russia that were spreading the type of fake news used to influence voters. We know they aren't getting everything - please remind your friends & family to be careful consumers. https://newsroom.fb.com…
The IRA never stopped. The question is how they work w/new rules & better detection. The post suggests they repurposed content vs. created. Also, Instagram-first; it's a lot harder to observe clusters on Insta where there's no real name requirement or acct transparency features. …
Facebook removed 50 Instagram accounts and one Facebook account likely associated with the Internet Research Agency. Once again the spread of views supported is quite diverse: black affinity, anti-Trump, Confederate, pro-Bernie... https://newsroom.fb.com/...
So @facebook still is outsourcing the detection of misinformation and it's openly inviting politicians to lie in ads. (And still tracking you all over). But these new warnings are a bit better than the old ones, so maybe they'll help. More on this at https://www.vox.com/... https…
Facebook said it uncovered new efforts by groups linked to Iran and Russia to dupe the company's users. It's a reminder that the company is going to be under enormous pressure in the run-up to the 2020 election. https://www.vox.com/...
So apparently Iran used one my tweets in as part of its “inauthentic behavior” according to Facebooks's cybersecurity policy head. My tweet was just a tweet of a Haaretz report on how Israel targets civilian areas in Gaza, which is all true. https://newsroom.fb.com/...
Facebook has disclosed new attacks on it's platform by Iran and Russia's Internet Research Agency. At the same time, Facebook announced new moves it says will help “protect the 2020 US elections.” https://www.vox.com/...
In examining Facebook's latest disclosure about IRA election meddling, you should notice how the company's press release says little about what candidates were targeted. Two of four examples show one account pushing a stop Trump and one pro Bernie account. https://newsroom.fb.com…
The disinfo campaign from Russia featured hallmarks of the Internet Research Agency, according to Facebook, and trolls took steps to conceal their identity/location. Campaign was in its early stages, per FB, and Russians were looking to grow their following. https://twitter.com/.…
Accounts with usernames like http://black.queen.chloe and michigan_black_community_ looked like they were run by black activists. There were also pro and anti-Trump accounts, and accounts posing as feminists, LGBTQ rights advocates, and environmentalists.
at some point everyone just moved on from “of course there was no russian influence during the 2016 election that is crazy” to “we will see that same russian influence in the 2020 elections” https://twitter.com/...
“People linked to the Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-backed troll group indicted by the United States for its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, are laying the groundwork to do the same in 2020...” https://twitter.com/...
Russia is interfering in 2020 and they're dividing on race. “Among the accounts focused on black activism, there was a moderate amount of content opposing Kamala Harris. Harris' record as a California DA was mentioned as a reason to oppose her candidacy” https://www.cnn.com/...
“The Russian trolls who used social media to interfere in the 2016 election employed a similar tactic, going after Hillary Clinton from the right and also trying to spread a perception on the left that Clinton was not liberal enough...” https://twitter.com/...
Looks like Facebook did a mopping up operation from the folks reusing the Liberty Front Press creds and infrastructure for disinfo stuff in West Africa and Latin America. Tsk tsk. Laziness gets you nowhere, trolls. https://newsroom.fb.com/...
Feeling good about the prediction that multiple foreign actors will be involved with an initial focus on the Dem primary. That would be the natural use of left-leaning IG personas: to amplify discontent and disunity among minor-candidate supporters. https://www.lawfareblog.com/ .…
The IRA accounts seem to hit their classic racial themes, although with an Instagram focus. This has been the obvious trend since the 2018 midterms. The cross-posting of Twitter content is interesting and we'll see if we get an announcement from Twitter soon. https://twitter.com/…
Using AOC as a figurehead to manipulate Latin American countries (in this case, Venezuela per the 4 Febrero name) is a new twist, and a good example of how we can't consider these campaigns in the context of only one country. https://twitter.com/...
This is right out of the IRA playbook: create a fake group with strong ethnic affinity, build an audience with clickbait and then inject stories tied to your actual objectives. Going from “America's Racist Presidents” to a story about the Iranian FM is a bit ham-handed. https://t…
Some insta-reactions: 1) Iranian accounts show their traditional regional focus but also an expansion into trying to influence US politics directly. https://twitter.com/...
here's a page with examples of the types of content Iran/Russia were spreading https://newsroom.fb.com/... there's no specific ideology or intent, it seems, beyond sowing discord israel/palestine conflict content posts on AOC race-related news items