The social media network Facebook has reportedly removed 652 fake accounts from its site. It is said that the pages were set from Russian and Iranian accounts that aimed to affect world politics. The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, commented that security is difficult to fully attain, so there should be further improvement and caution.
The cyber-security company that found out about the campaigns, FireEye, pointed out that the themes of the various accounts were to “promote Iranian political interests, including anti-Saudi, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian themes, as well as promote support for specific US policies favorable to Iran, such as the US-Iran nuclear deal”. Moreover, the camapign had anti-Trump content. The campaigns were focused on the Middle East, UK, US and Latin America and had spend approximately $6,000 on Facebook and Instagram advertising.
Another campaign tried to spread cyber-security attacks, trying to hack accounts as well. Furthermore, other campaigns, involving the Russian military intelligence services, focusing on their recent activity that was encouraging pro-Russia ideas relating to Syria and Ukraine.
Facebook has recently had some campaigns that “fake news” is not something that should be spread and cybersecurity measurements are a great example that they are taking the issue seriously.
> Maria Baeva
Removal of “Fake News” from Facebook
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