All Sections

View and post jobs in journalism
  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Comment/Analysis
  • Editor's Pick
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Broadcast Journalism
    • Digital Journalism
    • Magazines
    • Media Law
    • National Newspapers
    • People
      • Appointments
      • Obituaries
    • Regional Newspapers
  • Press Gazette Podcast
  • British Journalism Awards
  • Press Gazette Email Newsletter

In the news

  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
  • About us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • RSS
Close
[mashshare]
Skip to content
  • About us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • RSS
All sections

Search

Search pressgazette.co.uk

Close

Press Gazette

Subscribe to our email newsletter Journalism email newsletter
  • News
  • Comment
  • Data
  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Marketing
  • Awards
  • Jobs

Menu

  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Interviews
  • National Newspapers
  • Regional Newspapers
  • Digital Journalism
  • Broadcast Journalism
  • Media Law
  • Magazines
  • Wires and Agencies
  • Obituaries
  • News
  • Comment/Analysis
  • Jobs
  • British Journalism Awards

In the news

  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
Close
Jeremy Corbyn to propose turning news outlets into charities for funding boost and reforms to BBC in speech on future of media
Corbyn calls for journalists to be 'set free' from 'billionaire' press barons as he proposes 'public interest media fund' and editorial elections
August 23, 2018
  • Digital Journalism
  •    
  • News
  •    
  • Social media
  •    

Facebook's removal of hundreds of fake pages targeting UK politics just 'tip of the iceberg', says fake news inquiry chairman

By PA Media Lawyer Twitter

Share this

  • Tweet
  • Share 0
  • Reddit
Comments
1

Facebook’s removal of hundreds of fake pages, groups and accounts that targeted UK politics is “the tip of the iceberg”, according to the chairman of the parliamentary fake news inquiry.

Conservative MP Damian Collins called for greater transparency from Facebook after the social network announced on Tuesday that it had removed more than 650 accounts linked to Iran which had posed as news organisations or grassroots activists.

Timeline

  • January 20, 2021

    Facebook removes UK aggregator NewsNow's page without warning or explanation

  • January 15, 2021

    Facebook Instant Articles format boosts article readership by third, Reach finds

  • December 17, 2020

    Facebook told Full Fact to remove fact-check ratings on doctored video of Keir Starmer during election

“They’ve found a few hundred here or there targeting the UK and US and there were 30,000 removed close to the French election, but my concern is that this would be the tip of the iceberg,” Collins (pictured) said.

An internal investigation by the world’s biggest social network found four groups across Facebook and Instagram which spent thousands of pounds on advertising and had hundreds of thousands of followers.

The activity, some of which dates back to 2011, included spreading political messages and attempting to hack other people’s accounts or spread malware, according to Facebook’s head of cyber security policy.

Writing on the company’s blog, Nathaniel Gleischer said: “We’ve removed 652 pages, groups and accounts for coordinated inauthentic behaviour that originated in Iran and targeted people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, UK and US.”

Separate activity from Russia which targeted politics in Syria and Ukraine was also removed, he said.

Pages called The British Left and Free Scotland 2014 shared posts about Jeremy Corbyn, Brexit, Boris Johnson and the Queen while others discussed Donald Trump’s presidency and the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“There’s a lot we don’t know yet,” Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

Collins said: “With pages in particular it should be clear to users from which country that is being operated from.

“Users should also know whether the person operating the page is deliberately hiding their identity.”

Facebook increased transparency around the history of certain pages and political advertising earlier this year after whistleblowers disclosed that Russian agents and controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica had targeted voters during the 2016 US election and the Brexit vote.

In July, the Electoral Commission fined official Brexit campaign group Vote Leave and reported senior figures to the police for breaking electoral law with Facebook adverts targeting voters in the build-up to the EU referendum in 2016.

Collins said: “We’ll see more of this activity between now and the US mid-term elections (in November). But Facebook has not really been investing in looking at this activity and the problem is probably much larger than we’ve seen.”

Cybersecurity firm Fireeye first alerted Facebook to a network of pages operating under the name Liberty Front Press, posing as “news and civil society organisations”.

Gleischer said website data linked 74 pages, 70 accounts and three groups which targeted UK and US politics on Facebook, as well as 76 Instagram accounts, to Iran’s state media.

These pages hosted three events and spent more than $6,000 (£4,666) in advertising, he said, although he gave no details about the events and adverts or what would happen to the money paid to Facebook for promotion.

“About 155,000 accounts followed at least one of these pages, 2,300 accounts joined at least one of these groups, and more than 48,000 accounts followed at least one of these Instagram accounts,” he said.

A second, smaller network linked to Liberty Front Press tried to hack into user accounts and spread malware.

The oldest network was created in 2011 and largely posted about Middle East politics in Arabic and Farsi but also shared content in the UK and US, including the page Free Scotland 2014.

The network spent more than $6,000 in advertising on Facebook and Instagram, paid for in US dollars, Turkish lira and Indian rupees between July 2012 and April 2018.

Facebook said it was still investigating the networks and has shared information with the US and UK governments.

Fireeye plans to release a full report into the activity but has not specified a date.

Collins said the fake news inquiry would release its final report in the autumn, after the Information Commissioner has completed a parallel investigation into how Facebook handles users’ personal information.

Picture: Reuters/Peter Nicholls

SIGN UP HERE FOR

MEDIA MONITOR

Press Gazette's weekly email providing strategic insight into the future of the media

Subscribe

Related Stories

  • Cash for conspiracies: How David Icke, 'alternative' media and tech giants make money from coronavirus conspiracies
  • Facebook removes 364 'Sputnik employee-linked' pages and accounts for 'co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour'
  • Facebook removes hundreds of pages and accounts run from Iran posing as news organisations and targeting UK users with political content
  • Culture Committee chairman says Twitter response to 'fake news' inquiry probe 'completely inadequate'

Explore these topics

  • Facebook
Browse, search and add journalism jobs
Comments

1 thought on “Facebook's removal of hundreds of fake pages targeting UK politics just 'tip of the iceberg', says fake news inquiry chairman”

  1. Alan says:
    August 24, 2018 at 5:21 pm

    Ironic, a member of one of the most opaque and authoritarian parliaments calling for transparency from Facebook. The only aspect that has any truth is the whole business is fake.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More content

Post a job on Press Gazette

Most Popular

  1. Sunday Times exposure of crime boss David Hunt shows that sometimes big media is needed to expose big wrongs
  2. Cash for conspiracies: How David Icke, 'alternative' media and tech giants make money from coronavirus conspiracies
  3. Former Sunday Mirror editor Bridget Rowe is among at least 20 UK journalists killed by coronavirus
  4. cookies Enter Sandbox: How Google is building an internet without cookies - and why publishers are concerned
  5. most popular newspapers UK UK national newspaper ABCs: Mail on Sunday reports smallest circulation decline in 2020

Latest Jobs

  • Global Witness logo investigative journalist job Investigation Officer (Forests), Global Witness
  • Editor in Chief, Scottish Sun
  • Features Producer, Economist Radio
Corbyn calls for journalists to be 'set free' from 'billionaire' press barons as he proposes 'public interest media fund' and editorial elections

© copyright 2021 Press Gazette Ltd. Made in Taiwan.