American online social media service company Facebook announced on January the 31st that it took down 783 pages and accounts after they were «engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior» on the platform. In a communiqué, quoted by American financial website Business Insider, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher stated that this «activity was directed from Iran (…) each localized for a specific country or region, including Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Mexico, Morocco». Page administrators and account owners represent themselves as locals through fake accounts, Facebook reports. These platforms posted news stories on topics, including «Israel-Palestine relations and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen and the role of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Russia». These accounts used «$30,000 in spending for ads on Facebook and Instagram» to influence people from the countries above-mentioned regarding topics related to politics.
