# Incident I00128: #TrollTracker: Outward Influence Operation From Iran
* **Summary:** <i>Facebook removed 783 assets — pages, groups, and accounts — that the company assessed to be associated with an Iran-based network for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” The network targeted users in more than a dozen countries and posted content in at least eight different languages.<br><br>All but 97 pages were previously removed by a mixture of automated systems, spam detectors, or varied platform integrity team. Before the takedown, Facebook shared the remaining 97 active pages with @DFRLab.</i>
| [T0097.208 Social Cause Persona](../../generated_pages/techniques/T0097.208.md) | IT00000534 <i>[Meta removed a network of assets for coordinated inauthentic behaviour. One page] in the network, @StopMEK, was promoting views against the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), the largest and most active political opposition group against the Islamic Republic of Iran Leadership.<br><br>The content on the page drew narratives showing parallels between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the MEK.<br><br>Apart from images and memes, the @StopMEK page shared a link to an archived report on how the United States was monitoring the MEK’s movement in Iran in the mid-1990’s. The file was embedded as a QR code on one of the page’s images.</i><br><br>In this example a Facebook page presented itself as focusing on a political cause (T0097.208: Social Cause Persona, T0151.001: Social Media Platform, T0151.002: Online Community Group). Within the page it embedded a QR code (T0122: Direct Users to Alternative Platforms, T0153.004: QR Code Asset), which took users to a document hosted on another website (T0152.004: Website Asset). |
| [T0122 Direct Users to Alternative Platforms](../../generated_pages/techniques/T0122.md) | IT00000537 <i>[Meta removed a network of assets for coordinated inauthentic behaviour. One page] in the network, @StopMEK, was promoting views against the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), the largest and most active political opposition group against the Islamic Republic of Iran Leadership.<br><br>The content on the page drew narratives showing parallels between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the MEK.<br><br>Apart from images and memes, the @StopMEK page shared a link to an archived report on how the United States was monitoring the MEK’s movement in Iran in the mid-1990’s. The file was embedded as a QR code on one of the page’s images.</i><br><br>In this example a Facebook page presented itself as focusing on a political cause (T0097.208: Social Cause Persona, T0151.001: Social Media Platform, T0151.002: Online Community Group). Within the page it embedded a QR code (T0122: Direct Users to Alternative Platforms, T0153.004: QR Code Asset), which took users to a document hosted on another website (T0152.004: Website Asset). |
| [T0151.001 Social Media Platform](../../generated_pages/techniques/T0151.001.md) | IT00000535 <i>[Meta removed a network of assets for coordinated inauthentic behaviour. One page] in the network, @StopMEK, was promoting views against the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), the largest and most active political opposition group against the Islamic Republic of Iran Leadership.<br><br>The content on the page drew narratives showing parallels between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the MEK.<br><br>Apart from images and memes, the @StopMEK page shared a link to an archived report on how the United States was monitoring the MEK’s movement in Iran in the mid-1990’s. The file was embedded as a QR code on one of the page’s images.</i><br><br>In this example a Facebook page presented itself as focusing on a political cause (T0097.208: Social Cause Persona, T0151.001: Social Media Platform, T0151.002: Online Community Group). Within the page it embedded a QR code (T0122: Direct Users to Alternative Platforms, T0153.004: QR Code Asset), which took users to a document hosted on another website (T0152.004: Website Asset). |
| [T0151.002 Online Community Group](../../generated_pages/techniques/T0151.002.md) | IT00000536 <i>[Meta removed a network of assets for coordinated inauthentic behaviour. One page] in the network, @StopMEK, was promoting views against the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), the largest and most active political opposition group against the Islamic Republic of Iran Leadership.<br><br>The content on the page drew narratives showing parallels between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the MEK.<br><br>Apart from images and memes, the @StopMEK page shared a link to an archived report on how the United States was monitoring the MEK’s movement in Iran in the mid-1990’s. The file was embedded as a QR code on one of the page’s images.</i><br><br>In this example a Facebook page presented itself as focusing on a political cause (T0097.208: Social Cause Persona, T0151.001: Social Media Platform, T0151.002: Online Community Group). Within the page it embedded a QR code (T0122: Direct Users to Alternative Platforms, T0153.004: QR Code Asset), which took users to a document hosted on another website (T0152.004: Website Asset). |
| [T0152.004 Website Asset](../../generated_pages/techniques/T0152.004.md) | IT00000539 <i>[Meta removed a network of assets for coordinated inauthentic behaviour. One page] in the network, @StopMEK, was promoting views against the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), the largest and most active political opposition group against the Islamic Republic of Iran Leadership.<br><br>The content on the page drew narratives showing parallels between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the MEK.<br><br>Apart from images and memes, the @StopMEK page shared a link to an archived report on how the United States was monitoring the MEK’s movement in Iran in the mid-1990’s. The file was embedded as a QR code on one of the page’s images.</i><br><br>In this example a Facebook page presented itself as focusing on a political cause (T0097.208: Social Cause Persona, T0151.001: Social Media Platform, T0151.002: Online Community Group). Within the page it embedded a QR code (T0122: Direct Users to Alternative Platforms, T0153.004: QR Code Asset), which took users to a document hosted on another website (T0152.004: Website Asset). |
| [T0153.004 QR Code Asset](../../generated_pages/techniques/T0153.004.md) | IT00000538 <i>[Meta removed a network of assets for coordinated inauthentic behaviour. One page] in the network, @StopMEK, was promoting views against the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), the largest and most active political opposition group against the Islamic Republic of Iran Leadership.<br><br>The content on the page drew narratives showing parallels between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the MEK.<br><br>Apart from images and memes, the @StopMEK page shared a link to an archived report on how the United States was monitoring the MEK’s movement in Iran in the mid-1990’s. The file was embedded as a QR code on one of the page’s images.</i><br><br>In this example a Facebook page presented itself as focusing on a political cause (T0097.208: Social Cause Persona, T0151.001: Social Media Platform, T0151.002: Online Community Group). Within the page it embedded a QR code (T0122: Direct Users to Alternative Platforms, T0153.004: QR Code Asset), which took users to a document hosted on another website (T0152.004: Website Asset). |
