Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. removed about 300 accounts, mostly originating in Iran, that were found to be engaged in coordinated “inauthentic behavior.”

The social media companies acted on a tip from cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc, which said that the accounts were promoting Iranian propaganda, including discussion of “anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian themes.”

Facebook Inc , Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc collectively removed hundreds of accounts tied to Iranian actors that a cybersecurity firm were promoting Iran's geopolitical agenda around the world.
Through a network of fake news websites and fraudulent social media personas spread across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google Plus and YouTube, the Iranian-linked campaign pushed narratives in line with the country's interests.
The campaign was aimed at users in the United States, Britain, Latin America and Middle East up through this month, according to an analysis by the cybersecurity company FireEye Inc , which first spotted the behavior.
The account removals comes weeks after Facebook took down accounts originating in Russia for engaging in deceiving behavior. The company said that it found additional inauthentic behavior tied to Russia, but that the activity does not appear linked to the campaign tied to Iran.
Russia has been linked to similar online influence campaigns, including an effort to sow political divisions among U.S. voters, but FireEye said its findings showed that the same tactics are now being used for different aims.
The firm said the Iranian activity included "anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes" and advocacy of policies favorable to Iran such as the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal. The finding comes as concerns are rising about foreign attempts to disrupt the U.S. midterm election in November.
Microsoft on Monday said that hackers linked to the Russian government sought to steal email login credentials from U.S. politicians and think tanks.
FireEye said the Iranian activity did not appear "dedicated" to influencing the upcoming election, though some of the posts aimed at U.S. users did adopt "left-leaning identities" and took stances against President Donald Trump. That activity "could suggest a more active attempt to influence domestic U.S. political discourse" is forthcoming, Foster said, but "we just haven't seen that yet."
FireEye said the U.S.-focused activity ramped up last year, just months after Trump took office, with websites and social media accounts posting memes and articles, some of which were apparently copied from legitimate U.S. and Iranian news outlets.