Facebook kills off network of Iran-linked accounts that impersonated US and UK citizens to post about race relations, immigration and opposition to Donald Trump and British leaders
- Facebook removed 82 pages, groups and accounts from its site and Instagram
- Blamed 'coordinated inauthentic behavior' that originated in Iran and targeted people in the UK and United States
- Accounts posed as UK or US citizens and posted about politically charged topics including race relations, opposition to the President, and immigration
- About 1.02 million accounts followed at least one of these Pages
Facebook said on Friday it had removed 82 pages, groups and accounts for coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Iran and targeted people in the UK and United States.
It said the page administrators and account owners had represented themselves as US citizens, or in a few cases UK citizens and posted about politically charged topics including race relations, opposition to the President, and immigration.
Groups included 'Wake Up America', 'Thirst for Truth' and 'No racism no war'.
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/26/18/5452250-6321425-image-m-23_1540574074123.jpg)
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/26/18/5452258-6321425-image-a-24_1540574078434.jpg)
Accounts posed as UK or US citizens and posted about politically charged topics including race relations, opposition to the President, and immigration.
'Today we removed multiple Pages, groups and accounts that originated in Iran for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram,' Facebook said.
'This is when people or organizations create networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing.
'We prohibit coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook because we want people who use our services to be able to trust the connections they make.'
About 1.02 million accounts followed at least one of these Pages, about 25,000 accounts joined at least one of these groups, and more than 28,000 accounts followed at least one of these Instagram accounts, the site said.
'We have found no ties to the Iranian government, we can’t say for sure who is responsible,' the site said.
However, it stated 'a manual review of these accounts linked their activity to Iran.
'We also identified some overlap with the Iranian accounts and Pages we removed in August.'
Facebook earlier this month revealed a physical 'war room' at its California headquarters as part of its efforts to tackle election interference tactics.
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/26/18/5452260-6321425-image-m-30_1540574191755.jpg)
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The ads released by Facebook from the accounts were designed to go viral
'As soon as we detected this activity, the teams in our elections war room worked quickly to investigate and remove these bad actors, Facebook said.
In September, in the run-up to elections in both Brazil and the US, it created the physical room at its Menlo Park campus from where it says its elections interference prevention experts can work together.
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/26/18/5452264-6321425-image-m-34_1540574282315.jpg)
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/26/18/5452262-6321425-image-m-36_1540574291326.jpg)
UK politicians including Prime Minister Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, were also targetted.
Inside the secure room are dozens of employees staring intently at their monitors while data streams across giant dashboards.
They are only allowed to leave the room for short bathroom breaks or to grab food to eat at their desks.
On the walls are posters of the sort Facebook frequently uses to caution or exhort its employees. One reads, 'Nothing at Facebook is somebody else's problem.'
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