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).
Later today House Republicans will grill Snap, Tiktok and Youtube on how their products affect the mental health of teenagers. It comes after a report revealed that Facebook's photo sharing platform, Instagram, can be harmful to teen's mental health. Rishi Bharwani, Director of Partnerships and Policy, Accountable Tech joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
Facebook is changing its company name to Meta. The social media giant is rebranding itself to focus on building the metaverse, a futuristic, immersive experience that would allow people to interact virtually on a daily basis. Steve Sosnick, Interactive Brokers' Chief Strategist, joined Cheddar to discuss the implications of the metaverse and why Facebook is making the move now.
Mark Sebastian, CIO of Karman Line Capital & Founder of OptionPit.com, discusses the inflation headwinds impacting the market and how scrutiny over Facebook's practices could impact revenue for the social media giant going forward.
Just days after Facebook's Meta announcement, Microsoft announced that it will be launching its own mixed reality platform called Mesh through Teams. Jared Spataro, corporate vice president at Microsoft 365, joined Cheddar to provide some additional insight into this metaverse for businesses and how they can benefit from incorporating the tech. Among the features, Mesh users will be able to use cartoon-like avatars to interact with colleagues in an immersive virtual environment.
Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Ancient Oceans'; Deep-sea biologist Heather Bracken-Grissom sheds light on some of the monsters that we can and cannot explain lurking in the darkness of the ocean's depths; Tim Janssen, CEO of Sofar Ocean, discusses Sofar Ocean's latest round of Series B funding, and how Sofar Ocean is helping connect all five oceans to help everything from climate change to the global shipping industry.
Tim Janssen, CEO of Sofar Ocean, joins 'Cheddar Reveals' to discuss Sofar Ocean's latest round of Series B funding, and how Sofar Ocean is helping connect all five oceans to help everything from climate change to the global shipping industry.
Bob Carter, EVP of sales at Toyota Motor North America, joined Cheddar to discuss the company's first all-electric SUV, the BZ4X, to be available in the United States in spring of 2022. Carter also went into the ongoing global semiconductor chip shortage that forced the automaker to slash production by 15 percent in November impacts on production and the other electric vehicle model being offered from its Lexus brand.
Ted Mortonson, Technology Strategist at Baird, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the factors that led to weaker-than-expected earnings results for the two tech giants, and whether they can find solutions to these issues in the coming months.
Carlo and Baker cover the big races to watch on this off-cycle Election Day, the concrete pledges starting to come out of COP26, Jeffrey Epstein keeps causing CEOs to lose their jobs, and Ryan Murphy's TV hit that wasn't.
