The picture was just like many of the other Facebook posts criticizing Britain’s decision to leave the European Union: a fake commemorative stamp showing a person preparing to shoot himself in the foot. Facebook revealed that the unremarkable post was anything but originated from an Iranian-backed group aimed at Britain, in what the company said was the first known instance of a foreign influence campaign aimed at people outside the United States.

Facebook has spent the past two years trying to block foreign propaganda in the United States. But its disclosure of hundreds of fake accounts and pages, including the one tied to the Iranian-backed group, revealed that the foreign manipulation of elections through Facebook extends across the globe. Tactics used by Russia-linked groups ahead of the 2016 presidential election are being applied in Britain, the Middle East and Latin America.

Europe, where Facebook has more users than in the United States, is particularly worried. The company’s announcement exacerbated concerns that the region will be a regular target of foreign propaganda efforts — including ahead of next year’s European Parliament elections, which will help set the policy direction in Brussels for the next five years.

The discovery immediately added momentum in Europe to pass new laws to clamp down on social media platforms, including rules to remove terrorist content and to restrict how voters are targeted with political messages online.

Facebook said that it had removed the 652 fake accounts, pages and groups. The posts from those accounts played up emotional political issues, including immigration, the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Facebook shared only a limited number of examples of suspended posts, many of which were the kinds of internet memes that are common in newsfeeds on the platform, using humor to play on controversial political topics.

But unlike those targeted at Americans, the posts made public  have a more international bent, including some written in Arabic and Farsi. And in identifying Iran for the first time, Facebook acknowledged that countries other than Russia, which the company said was also behind some of the newly uncovered accounts, are now trying to manipulate its platform to intensify political divisions abroad.

In the Middle East, Facebook is a key source of news and is frequently used as a platform for political discussions, but citizens are also more accustomed to navigating state-backed propaganda, potentially muting the impact of information campaigns in the region.

Facebook’s announcement made few waves in Israel or the Palestinian territories, where the social media system is already filled with nationalistic and political messaging. Some even downplayed the significance of the company’s moves, describing it as possibly part of an in-house public relations exercise.