Facebook removes 652 pages linked to Russia, Iran ahead of midterms

Facebook said Tuesday it had removed 652 pages, accounts and groups tied to a newly discovered influence campaign ahead of the midterm elections. Some of the pages originated in Iran and others in Russia, Facebook said in a statement.

According to Facebook, the cybersecurity firm FireEye alerted the social media company in July a network of Facebook Pages known as “Liberty Front Press.” Facebook said it was able to “link the network to Iranian state media through publicly available website registration information, as well as the use of related IP addresses and Facebook Pages sharing the same admins.”

The news comes weeks after Facebook announced it had removed 32 accounts from Facebook and Instagram that it said violated its ban on “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and may be linked to an account created by Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA), a so-called troll farm that was a central component of the Russian influence campaign in the 2016 elections.

The company said it removed additional Russian-linked accounts not related to the Iran-related network. It said the Russian accounts had recently been focused on disseminating information about politics in Syria and Ukraine.

Facebook said it was working with U.S. law enforcement to investigate the accounts.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.