Facebook removes Iran-linked network targeting Americans
The tech giant said the network was discovered early in its operations.
Facebook on Tuesday removed a network the tech giant says originated from Iran and targeted the United States ahead of next week’s presidential election.
The network of accounts, which was caught early in its operations, engaged in what the company’s head of security policy called “perception hacking.”
“We see malicious actors attempt to play on our collective expectation of wide-spread interference to create the perception that they’re more impactful than they in fact are,” Nathaniel Gleicher said in a statement Tuesday.
Last week, US intelligence officials revealed that Iran had used voter registration data to send threatening emails to American voters in an attempt to undermine the upcoming election. After the FBI released its findings, Gleicher said Facebook discovered a single account that was created earlier this month in an effort to “seed false claims and unsubstantiated election-related threats as part of an influence operation carried out primarily via email.”
