Facebook discovered dozens of pages, accounts and groups on Facebook and Instagram that were connected to an attempt to create friction over hot-button political issues—including immigration, police brutality, President Trump and race.
Facebook discovered the activity by what it identified as a covert Iranian disinformation campaign late last week, and removed several streams of content for “inauthentic coordinated behavior.”
While a portion of the activity was aimed at Saudi Arabia and Israel, most of the social media in the campaign was pointed at U.S. users, and the posts were made to look like the work of left-leaning users in seems to be an effort at creating agit-prop in advance of the midterm elections.
Experts who talked to USA Today said the campaign was like a page out of the Russia playbook, referring to the disinformation that glutted social media over the months previous to the 2016 election, and which many credit with handing the election to President Trump.
The story is the latest of many that drive home a simple fact: In this time of information insecurity, it is crucial to distrust and verify—and maybe even re-verify.
