October 2020 report says over 10,000 people followed the pages and accounts before their removal

Facebook said it had removed 12 accounts, two pages and 307 Instagram accounts linked to Iran for violating foreign intervention policy on Friday, after campaigns specifically targeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Iranian accounts primarily targeted Israel, although Iraq was also in the crosshairs, Facebook said.

“This network was early in its audience building when we removed it,” said the social media platform’s October 2020 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior report.

Despite attempts to conceal their origin, Facebook traced them back to EITRC, a Tehran-based IT company.

Most of the accounts were created around the same time, posting memes, images and other media content in Hebrew and Arabic. The names were changed several times and claimed to be either from Israel or Iraq.

The accounts criticized Netanyahu’s policies and response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and supported anti-Netanyahu protests in Israel.

Some 1,100 Facebook accounts followed at least one of the pages, while around 9,500 followed the Instagram accounts.

Source » i24news