Fake accounts called “The British Left” and “Free Scotland 2014” were among a list of 652 pages, groups and accounts shut down by the social media company

Facebook has removed fake pro-Corbyn and anti-Brexit accounts linked to Iran amid a purge of hundreds of pages falsely posing as news organisations or grassroots activists in Britain.

Fake accounts called “The British Left” and “Free Scotland 2014” were among a list of 652 pages, groups and accounts shut down by the social media company, which found they were “distinct campaigns” for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”.

On Wednesday, Facebook published extracts from the accounts which included praise for Jeremy Corbyn and satirical images mocking Brexit, adding that the network appeared to be part of an entity known as "Liberty Front Press" which was linked with “Iranian state media”.

One image posted by The British Left referenced Jeremy Corbyn having the “fewest expenses of any MP”, while another showed a series of “Brexit stamps” portraying an English longbowmen turning the arrow on himself and a man shooting himself in the foot with a pistol.

In an online blog, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said that one part of the network, “Quest 4 Truth”, had masqueraded as an independent news organisation but “is in fact linked to" an Iranian state media channel.

View photos Examples provided by Facebook from the page called 'The British Left' More

Mr Gleicher added that from 2017 onwards, the channels “increased their focus on the UK and the US”, and typically “posed as news and civil society organisations”.

Facebook’s investigation, which was prompted after it received a tip-off from the cybersecurity firm FireEye, found that the Iranian network of accounts also engaged in “traditional cybersecurity attacks” such as hacking into people’s accounts and spreading malware.

The Iranian effort dated to 2011 and had also spread to Facebook’s sister site, Instagram, as well as Twitter and Youtube.

The fake Iranian accounts bought $6,000 worth of adverts on Facebook and used it to organise events.

View photos

A pro-Scottish independence page, called “Free Scotland 2014”, posted images mocking the Queen and another linking Boris Johnson to Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist.

Mr Gleischer said website data linked 74 pages, 70 accounts and three groups which targeted UK and US politics on Facebook, as well as 76 Instagram accounts, to Iran's state media.

Facebook has shared its finding with the US and UK governments and confirmed it would be making changes to ensure it was able to “better detect people” attempting to create similar pages in the future.

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