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).
Identity verification startup Socure recently raised $450 million dollars in a series E round, bringing the company's valuation to $4.5 billion. Socure says it is now the highest-valued private company in the identity verification space, and that the funds will be used to accelerate its mission to verify 100% of good identities and eliminate identity fraud across all industries. Socure Founder and CEO Johnny Ayers joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
With more companies offering employees flexibility in work schedules, Airbnb is looking to accommodate flexible travel plans. Chief Strategy Officer Nathan Blecharczyk joined Cheddar to discuss the growing trend of people staying in Airbnbs for longer periods of time. "In December over the holidays, in North America, we are seeing a 68 percent increase in the demand for month-long stays relative to years past," he said.
Coinbase reported third quarter earnings yesterday and revenue did not at all meet estimates, with the company saying that it also saw a staggering decrease of about 1.4 million customers in comparison to the previous quarter. This comes in the same week where bitcoin and ethereum, two of its most important digital assets hit record highs. Martin Gaspar, research analyst at CrossTower explains how a soft crypto trading quarter contributed to the less-than-ideal revenue outcome.
John Jannarone, Editor-In-Chief at IPOedge.com, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss Riivian ahead of its public debut on the Nasdaq, as investors gear up for the biggest IPO for a U.S. company since Facebook.
Iran is continuing to crack down on illicit bitcoin mining in the Islamic Republic after 227 mining rigs were seized. Businesses looking to run legal bitcoin mining operations have had to seek approval since 2019.
DoorDash is set to acquire European-based food delivery company Wolt in an $8.1 billion deal. Ann Berry, chief investment officer at media platform Wheelhouse, joined Cheddar to discuss how this positions DoorDash in the prepared food and potentially the grocery delivery space. "I do think that what DoorDash is trying to be thoughtful about now is how to take that there's been a shift in consumer behavior in terms of mobile ordering and delivery and try and apply it to other categories," she said, also pointing to its partnership with beauty supply company Ulta.
The Biden Administration has issued a new order aimed at all federal agencies which would order them to patch hundreds of cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Chief Evangelist at Intrusion Gary Davis and Chief Security Advisor at SentinelOne Morgan Wright, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Tatenda Musapatike, Founder of the Voter Formation Project and former Political Ad Specialist at Facebook, joined Cheddar to discuss the outsized role social media plays in politics.
Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos took to the stage at the U.N.'s COP26 Climate Summit to unveil a new plan to combat climate change, but some say it might do more harm than good. Justine Calma, Science Reporter at The Verge, joined Cheddar to discuss.
