An Iranian woman walks past a mural depicting the Statue of Liberty with a dead face, painted on the wall of the former US embassy in Tehran on Aug. 7.

Taking an apparent cue from Russia, Iran has developed a fake news influence operation to push its agenda around the world, researchers said Tuesday.

The operation, discovered by US cybersecurity firm FireEye, consists of Iranian-run fake American personas, which exist across multiple social media profiles. Those accounts link to misleading news sites and espouse political views in line with the government of Iran.

The tactics are nearly identical to those used for years by Russia’s infamous “troll factory,” the Internet Research Agency, 13 members and affiliates of which were indicted in April as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.



FireEye’s research, which it shared with BuzzFeed News, led Facebook and Twitter to suspend hundreds of accounts Tuesday for "coordinated, inauthentic behavior" associated with the Iranian influence operations, and a separate group of accounts originating in Russia.

“It really demonstrates it’s not just Russia that engages in this activity,” said Lee Foster, who manages FireEye’s Information Operations Intelligence division. “It indicates that other actors may perceive this activity as a fruitful way to pursue political or ideological goals.”

Unlike the Russian actors, whose US influence campaigns were most successful when imitating conservatives, the Iranians have primarily masqueraded as liberals. Using accounts that indicate progressive preferences, like an affinity for US Sen. Bernie Sanders, they pushed messages that were critical of Israel, President Donald Trump, and Saudi Arabia, Iran’s chief regional rival, FireEye found.

The research doesn’t make any claims about whether the Iranian government actually directed these operations, Lee said, though it would be a significant operation to undertake without official funding and direction.