Likud: Iran Disinformation Against Netanyahu Not Surprising

Social media network Facebook said late Thursday that it had canceled hundreds of fake accounts that were connected to Iran, which were used to spread disinformation about a number of topics and issues – and among that was disinformation aimed at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, seeking to defame him in advance of the April 9 Knesset elections.

The company did not disclose details of the disinformation. Among the closed accounts, which were on social media networks, were several with tens of thousands of followers. One of the Instagram accounts had 254,000 followers.

The accounts had been engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” a term Facebook uses to refer to meddling in political affairs, that “included commentary that repurposed Iranian state media’s reporting on topics like Israel-Palestine relations and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, including the role of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Russia.”

In a statement, the Likud said that “it is not surprising that Iran would seek to depose Prime Minister Netanyahu, after he halted its nuclear weapons program, destroyed its efforts to set up military bases in Syria, demolished its economy, and sent the Mossad to steal its top nuclear secrets from right under its nose. It will not do them any good. As long as Netanyahu is prime minister, Iran will suffer.”