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Facebook shuts down 650 pages, including many in the UK, covertly run by Iran
The pages included those supporting Jeremy Corbyn and attacking Israel
August 23, 2018 10:24
The pages included those supporting Jeremy Corbyn and attacking Israel
August 23, 2018 10:24Facebook has shut down a number of pages and accounts supportive of Jeremy Corbyn and Palestinians after receiving information linking them to the Iranian regime.
The social media giant said over 650 Facebook groups were part of a network called “Liberty Front Press”, which it said it traced back to Iranian state media through the use of “publicly available website registration information, related IP addresses and Facebook pages sharing the same admins”.
Examples of the pages included “The British Left”, which actively promoted Jeremy Corbyn to UK Facebook users, and the “Patriotic Palestinian Front”.
Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, wrote in a blog post: “one part of the network, ‘Quest 4 Truth’, claims to be an independent Iranian media organisation, but is in fact linked to Press TV, an English-language news network affiliated with Iranian state media.
“The first ‘Liberty Front Press’ accounts we’ve found were created in 2013. Some of them attempted to conceal their location, and they primarily posted political content focused on the Middle East, as well as the UK, US, and Latin America.
“Beginning in 2017, they increased their focus on the UK and US. Accounts and Pages linked to ‘Liberty Front Press’ typically posed as news and civil society organizations sharing information in multiple countries without revealing their true identity.”
Facebook also released examples of posts from these groups, which show content based around memes and pictures, including debunked claims.
One meme on the “British Left” page shows a cartoon character saying: “How could I possibly vote for Jeremy Corbyn? He claimed the fewest expenses of any MP! He opposes war and he supports the poor.
“I like my politicians greedy and murderous.”
Despite the claim from a number of far-left sources, Mr Corbyn did not claim the fewest expenses of any MP.
Another, from the “Palestinian Popular Front” page, accused Israel of killing Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, a Palestinian double amputee protestor in Gaza, “in cold blood”.
An Israeli investigation into the case revealed that on the day in question, sniper fire from the IDF had been used on three specific occasions and had been halted at least one hour before Hamas claimed the protestor was shot.
Recently published videos have revealed that Mr Corbyn repeatedly appeared on Press TV programming.
In one appearance, he told the presenter he saw "the hand of Israel" behind a terror attack in the Sinai, and in another he suggested the "BBC has bias towards saying Israel has a right to exist."
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