Facebook Pulls 652 Fake Accounts Engaged in Coordinated Influence Campaign

By Deepa Seetharaman and Dustin Volz

Facebook Inc. dismantled 652 pages, groups and accounts engaged in an coordinated influence campaign ahead of the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, part of the social-media company's broader purge of bad actors on its site.

Facebook said the 652 pages and accounts originated in Iran, and that they had been flagged for "coordinated inauthentic behavior." Facebook said the offenders had targeted internet services in the U.S., Middle East, U.K. and Latin America. The company separately found evidence of inauthentic Russian activity.

Facebook's allegation that the offenders were tied to Russia and Iran marks a departure from last month, when the firm was reluctant to assign responsibility for a smaller batch of accounts it pulled from the platform.

Facebook said it found no evidence the campaigns by Russia and Iran were connected.

"These were distinct campaigns and we have not identified any link or coordination between them," Facebook said in a blog post late on Tuesday. "However, they used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing."

Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 21, 2018 20:23 ET (00:23 GMT)

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