After FireEye’s announcement on a suspected influence operation (using a network of fake news sites) in Iran two weeks ago, Reddit started its own investigation into these suspicious websites. Just two days ago, Reddit has shared the findings of its investigation. It has also consulted with third parties to dig deeper into the matter and get more relevant information.
The influence group in Iran is leveraging the inauthentic websites “to promote political narratives in line with Iranian Interests”. These narratives comprises of anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes. It also provides support for U.S. policies which are favorable to Iran, such as the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA).
According to Reddit, 143 accounts have been uncovered so far that are suspected to be linked to this influence group. The majority (126) of these accounts were created between 2015 and 2018, with a few (17) of these accounts dating back to 2011. More than 51 accounts were banned by Reddit before beginning the investigation as part of their trust and safety practices. Additionally no ads were posted by these accounts on Reddit.
These groups were found to be focussed on discussing subjects that are important to Iran such as criticism of US policies in the Middle East, negative sentiment toward Saudi Arabia and Israel and discussions regarding Syria and ISIS.
Around 60% of the accounts had karma below 1,000 out of which 36% of these accounts had zero or negative karma. However, a minority of 40% of the accounts had more than 1,000 karma.
Reddit is planning to keep these accounts with varied karma levels public. This is to make the moderators, investigators, and the users on Reddit more aware of the tactics that foreign agents could attempt to use. However, Reddit will be removing some accounts in the future.
Reddit found the behavior of these accounts quite different in the sense that even though the overall influence of these accounts was low, some of these accounts were still able to gain traction. It was noted that these accounts would share news and articles aligned to Iran’s political narrative such as highlighting civilian deaths in Yemen.
The investigation is, according to Reddit, a tribute to the “incredible vigilance” of the Reddit community. Reddit is now planning to develop a trusted reporter system which will be able to better separate useful information from the junk. They’re also investing in advanced detection and mitigation methods.
“Our actions against these threats may not always be immediately visible to you, but this is a battle we have been fighting, and will continue to fight for the foreseeable future. And of course, we’ll continue to communicate openly with you about these subjects” says the Reddit team.
For more information, read the official FireEye report.
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