Facebook and Twitter suspended and removed hundreds of fake accounts used in a covert Iranian influence campaign, the two companies said Tuesday night.
The Iranian propaganda campaign pushed messages attacking President Donald Trump and Israel while promoting the Iran nuclear deal and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to an investigation by cybersecurity firm FireEye, which first uncovered the foreign influence campaign.
FireEye’s investigation found “inauthentic social media personas, masquerading as American liberals supportive of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, heavily promoting Quds Day, a holiday established by Iran in 1979 to express support for Palestinians and opposition to Israel.”
Iran has a history of supporting Sanders, a socialist independent who caucuses with Democrats in Congress. Iranian state media promoted Sanders while demonizing Trump and eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“We’ve removed 652 Pages, groups and accounts for coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Iran and targeted people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, UK and US,” Facebook cybersecurity policy head Nathanial Gleicher said in a statement Tuesday. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]On Tuesday, Iranian state media aired videos and photos of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in what they called the “first domestically manufactured” fighter jet. International aviation experts are now casting doubt on the claims of the “Kowsar” fighter jet being Iranian-designed and manufactured, and suggest that the design is actually of a U.S. F-5F jet built in the early 1970s, CNBC reports.
Joseph Dempsey, a research associate for the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS,) shared photos of the two aircraft on Twitter with striking similarities.
#Iran 'Kowsar' indigenous fighter – prototype 3-7400 (2018)#US Northrop F-5F Tiger II combat capable trainer – prototype 00889 (1974) pic.twitter.com/b8vJ7qGd9n
— Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) August 21, 2018
In an interview with CNBC, Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at IISS, claimed that the Kowsar fighter jet appeared to be a two-seater F-5F. He claimed that Iran may have manufactured new parts, but the idea that the jet was an Iranian creation should be taken with “a massive pinch of salt.”
“The markings on the side, particularly the slightly unusual air intakes that slope backwards slightly, are those of the F-5F,” he said.”It is all a bit of a giveaway really.”
Tehran purchased F-5Fs from the U.S. in 1974, five years before the 1979 Iranian Revolution when a new regime hostile to the U.S. came into power. – READ MORE
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