Google terminated 57 customer accounts, primarily on YouTube, that were pushing misinformation at the behest of Iran’s official state broadcasting network, the company announced in a blog post on Thursday.
The news comes just days after Facebook announced the suspension of 650 pages, groups, and accounts linked to Iran for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” dating as far back as 2011. Twitter also previously said it removed 274 accounts that appeared to have ties to Iran.
Google said the terminated accounts, which included 39 YouTube channels that collectively had nearly 14,000 views, were linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
“This effort was carried out as part of the overall operations of the IRIB organization, since at least January 2017. This finding is consistent with Internet activity we’ve warned about in recent years from Iran,” Kent Walker, senior vice president of global affairs, wrote in the blog post.
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The company said it has informed U.S. lawmakers and law enforcement of the findings, which were identified by cybersecurity company FireEye. Google last year removed 42 YouTube channels that were associated with Russia’s Internet Research Agency, the company linked to the Kremlin’s prior attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
In advance of the 2018 midterm elections in November, concerns are growing that the U.S. electoral system is ill equipped to safeguard against nefarious influence from foreign governments. Among the critics is Facebook’s former top security officer, who on Wednesday claimed it was too late to protect the fall elections.
Senate Republicans earlier this year blocked an attempt by Democrats to attach an additional $250 million in election security related funding to an annual appropriations bill. House Republicans previously blocked a similar attempt by Democrats in the chamber.
