Iran Latest Bad Actor to Spread Misinformation on Facebook
*By Carlo Versano*
Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft all announced this week they had shut down accounts and websites created to spread misinformation or malware almost immediately after discovering them.
But the scope of the threat remains unclear.
"I don't think anybody has a sense of how big the disinformation efforts are online by various foreign adversaries," said Washington Post technology reporter Craig Timberg. "It's not clear to me there are any systems set up to catch it."
The latest sweep targeted accounts and posts all traced to Iran ー hundreds, in the case of Facebook and Twitter ー though they pale in comparison to the coordinated misinformation campaign the Russians deployed in 2016, Timberg said Wednesday in an interview on Cheddar.
The speed with which these companies are alerting the public indicates they realize a need to be proactive about manipulation efforts on their platforms, said Sara Fischer, a reporter for Axios who also appeared Wednesday on Cheddar.
"I think it gives them a little bit of an upper hand every time they come out and say, 'We found something,'" Fisher said. The hope is that a "more holistic effort" will develop between the public and private sectors to take on cybersecurity issues, she added.
Fischer said that Silicon Valley's attempts at transparency are currying favor with regulators in Washington and strengthening users' trust in the platforms.
"This is evolving from being a tech policy and tech response conversation to a national security conversation," she said.
Facebook [announced](https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/more-coordinated-inauthentic-behavior) on Tuesday it removed 652 accounts and pages with ties to Iran. Soon after, Twitter [said](https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1032055161978585088) it suspended 284 accounts, many of which also originated in Iran, all meant to engage "in coordinated manipulation."
The Iranian Facebook campaigns included anti-Saudi and anti-Israel content and were aimed at users in the U.S., UK, Latin America, and the Middle East, according to [Fireye](https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/08/suspected-iranian-influence-operation.html), a cybersecurity firm that worked with Facebook on the investigation.
Both announcements follow a [report](https://cheddar.com/videos/microsoft-uncovers-new-russian-hacking-scheme) earlier in the week from Microsoft that found Russian intelligence groups had built a suite of fake U.S. political sites in an attempted spear-phishing campaign.
It has been well-established that social media can be used as a tool for manipulation by bad actors, Timberg said.
"We shouldn't believe everything we read on the internet," he said.
For full interview, [click here] (https://cheddar.com/videos/iranian-fake-news-accounts-targeted-people-around-the-world).
Earlier this week, digital investment advisor Betterment announced that it has hired Makara, a company known for its management of cryptocurrency portfolios. Sarah Levy, CEO of Betterment, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she explains why crypto represents such a promising long-term play and how her company stands to benefit from this latest move.
At-home medical labs company Getlabs raised $20 million in a Series A round, led by Emerson Collective and the Minderoo Foundation. Getlabs aims to be the boots-on-the-ground partner to telehealth. The company says more than 70% of medical decisions still require collecting diagnostic tests in person, and that it fills that void by delivering health care directly to their patients' homes. Founder & CEO of Getlabs Kyle Michelson joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The White House laid out plans for a $5 billion investment into a national network of charging stations to ease EV driving anxiety. Bruce Brimacombe, CEO of EV infrastructure GOe3 joined Cheddar News to discuss how much needs to be done for drivers to get over the fear of running out of energy. "People need to be able to do what they're doing now," he said. "But that is the way that if you're going to buy an electric car, you got to feel like you're not changing your world." Brimacombe noted that building out the infrastructure between cities was GOe3's own focus.
Sonos reported better than expected Q1 earnings amid chip shortage with the release of its Roam product. CFO Brittany Bagley joined Cheddar News to discuss the smart speaker maker's successful report and its plans to hit its 2024 targets as people leave their homes as pandemic restrictions ease. "Even as people head out in the world, it doesn't mean they don't like to listen to music at home or watch a streaming movie at home," she said. "So there's still a real role for us and our products in peoples lives, sort of, no matter what else they're doing."
Kalle Marsal, Chief Operating Officer at PetDx, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how next-generation sequencing technology is being used to detect cancer in pets early.
Ashleigh Hinde, Founder and CEO of WALDO, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss why now is a good time to make eyecare a priority, and how they are democratizing access to eyecare for all.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: WALDO CEO breaks down why now is a good time to make eyecare a priority, and how they are democratizing access to eyecare for all; COO at PetDx explains how next-generation sequencing technology is being used to detect cancer in pets early; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Inside The Mind of a Con Artist.'
Cheeze, Inc. is a media platform that hopes to help photographers to tell stories through the use of NFT’s. Simon Hudson, founder and CEO of Cheeze, Inc. joined Cheddar News to explain the process as well as teasing its "Women of Authenticity" display for Women’s History Month. "We've made it very simple and focused very hard on reducing all of the friction to bring their items to the blockchain." Hudson explained. He also addressed reports that cloud software giant Salesforce could be getting into the NFT marketplace.
