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.
The United States plans to extend its travel ban to over 30 countries, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Thursday....
Chinese President Xi Jinping accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron to Chengdu on Friday, a rare gesture seemingly reserved for the leader of Eu...
U.S. President Donald Trump brought together the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda in Washington on Thursday to sign a peace deal...
A viral claim circulating online that Denmark requires sperm donors to have an IQ of at least 85 is misleading....
The United States plans to extend its travel ban to over 30 countries, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Thursday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron to Chengdu on Friday, a rare gesture seemingly reserved for the leader of Europe’s second-largest economy, highlighting Beijing’s strategic focus on Paris in its dealings with the European Union.
Israel was cleared on Thursday to participate in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, a decision made by the organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which sparked a major controversy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday, aiming to enhance trade with Russia’s leading buyer of arms and seaborne oil, as Western sanctions continue to pressure their long-standing relationship.
For nearly three decades following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the international system was defined by a singular, overwhelming reality: American unipolarity.
Chinese scientists have unveiled a new gene-editing therapy that they say could lead to a functional cure for HIV, making it one of the most promising developments in decades of global research.
Faced with mounting public outrage following one of the deadliest environmental disasters in the nation’s recent history, the Indonesian government has pledged to investigate and potentially shut down mining operations found to have contributed to the catastrophic flooding on Sumatra.
Britain’s King Charles III welcomed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday, marking the beginning of his three-day state visit to the United Kingdom. The visit, the first by a German President to the UK in 27 years, comes as the two countries continue to strengthen ties post-Brexit.
U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a blistering verbal attack on the Somali community, characterising migrants as "garbage" just as federal authorities prepare a contentious enforcement operation in the Midwestern state of Minnesota.
Azerbaijan cannot yet provide a timeline for the large-scale return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to extensive landmine contamination in former conflict zones, the country’s presidential representative on special assignments, Elchin Amirbayov, said on Thursday.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has made a call to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to discuss the development prospects of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Germany.
Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili is participating in the 32nd OSCE Ministerial Council holding from 3rd to 5th December in Vienna.
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Elina Valtonen told the press that "the end of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia is a highly successful example that fosters optimism throughout the entire OSCE region," on Thursday (4 December).
Tensions between Georgia and Russia resurfaced this week after Moscow declared it sees “no preconditions” for renewing political dialogue, blaming Tbilisi’s insistence on de-occupation.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment