Meta removes 60 Iran-linked accounts targeting Azerbaijan and Türkiye

Meta announced it has removed 60 coordinated accounts linked to Iran that targeted Azeri-speaking audiences in Azerbaijan and Türkiye across multiple platforms.

The network used fake accounts—some detected and disabled automatically—to post content, manage Pages and Groups, and comment on their own posts to boost visibility. 

According to Meta’s report:  “We removed 17 accounts on Facebook, 22 Facebook Pages, and 21 Instagram accounts for violating our policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior. This network originated in Iran and targeted Azeri-speaking audiences in Azerbaijan and Türkiye across multiple internet services including ours, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and their own websites. We removed this activity before the operators were able to build authentic audiences on our apps.”.

Meta’s investigation was aided by data shared by Google Threat Intelligence Group and identified links to the STORM-2035 operation reported by OpenAI and Microsoft in August 2024.

The removed accounts had a combined follower base of about 44,000 on Facebook Pages and 63,000 on Instagram. The operation spent roughly $70 on ads, mostly paid in US and Canadian dollars.

This action followed complaints from Azerbaijan’s Electronic Security Service (ETX), which flagged suspicious accounts during the Iranian president’s recent visit to Azerbaijan. Meta also removed four major Russia-linked news pages targeting Azerbaijan in the past month as part of ongoing efforts to combat coordinated disinformation campaigns in the region.

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