Russia, Iran Leading Disinformation Charge on Facebook

Russia and Iran are leading the way when it comes to pushing bad information on one of the world's most popular social media platforms, and new analysis finds they are getting savvier at evading detection.  "Domestic IO also continues to push the boundaries of acceptable online behavior worldwide" per @Facebook "About half of the influence operations we’ve removed since 2017–including in #Moldova, #Honduras, #Romania, #UK, US, #Brazil & #India–were conducted by locals..." pic.twitter.com/e2pLpgLNaJ NEW: #Russia, #Iran #Myanmar top @Facebook's list of sources for influence ops/ Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior in new report covering 2017-2020US is 4th, #Ukraine is 5th pic.twitter.com/X2Z45AqUO2 #Election2020: "In the year leading up to the US 2020 election, we exposed over a dozen CIB operations targeting US audiences, including an equal number of networks originating from #Russia, #Iran, & the #UnitedStates itself" per @Facebook pic.twitter.com/MISQHnJigc

Facebook issued a report Wednesday looking at so-called coordinated inauthentic behavior over the past four years, warning that despite ongoing efforts to identify and remove disinformation networks, there is no let-up in attempts to exploit or weaponize conflict and crisis.  "Threat actors have adapted their behavior and sought cover in the gray spaces between authentic and inauthentic engagement and political activity," according to the Facebook report, which looked at the more than 150 networks from more than 50 countries that its security teams took down from 2017 to 2020.  "We know they will continue to look for new ways to circumvent our defenses," the report added, noting disinformation efforts were evenly split between foreign and domestic efforts.