SCOTS are being targeted by a disinformation campaign from Iran during the Scots Parliament election to try to destabilise the UK, a study has claimed.
The Henry Jackson Society think tank believes the cyber specialists working for Iran are trying to increase support for pro-independence parties in the upcoming Scottish election by targeting voters online.
Posing as sympathetic to pro-independence parties, the accounts encourage real users to share pro-separatist material, graphics, memes and cartoons with their contacts online.
Findings from the report also suggest Iranian actors have set up fake websites to influence campaigns and mislead potential voters.
The society said the campaign is designed to create division in rival nations to weaken them.
The fake accounts and profiles are described in the report as an attempt to "attack the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom".
It is claimed that 446 fake Facebook accounts were closed by the social media site for violating rules on interference. One account is said to have shared a post mocking the Scottish Conservatives.
It comes after after a study by Facebook and analytics company Graphika claimed Iran's state broadcaster experimented with using fake social media accounts to influence the outcome of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and other wetern elections.
The Iranian network, one of eight to be suspended for so-called “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” by the social media giant in April, last year, points to efforts by state-linked groups to try to use Facebook to influence foreign democratic contests years before Russia’s alleged campaign against the 2016 US presidential contest.
The network was linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation and involved more than 500 accounts that claimed to be independent but amplified narratives favourable to Tehran, according to Graphika, a social network analysis company that was allowed to independently verify Facebook’s findings.
One of the fake pages was called "The Scotsman Cartoon" and was designed to resemble the newspaper.
The network’s targets briefly included the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, about which a handful of accounts posted pro-leave content including several cartoons portraying then prime minister David Cameron as “the embodiment of English oppression”, the Graphika report said.
The Society's report concluded Iran tried to influence Scotland to split from the UK in a similar way to Russia’s alleged interference in US elections.
The report read: “Iran has shown itself to be a country which engages in Russian-style disinformation campaigns, repeatedly establishing fake websites and internet accounts in an effort to disrupt the political systems of liberal democracies.
"Judged within this context, Iran is almost certainly looking to disrupt our current elections, most likely those under way for the Scottish assembly.”
The study warned: “Iran has become increasingly sophisticated in both the scope and choice of its target.”
Report author Dr Paul Stott said Iran could no longer be considered a “third tier” country in terms of cyber capabilities.
The Society report says independence campaigns generated by agents acting on behalf of the Iranian regime so its leaders can deny responsibility and avoid repercussions.
It added the aim is to “cause harm to adversaries with clear military superiority, and at the same time, maintain a margin of denial that will prevent international censure or even sanctions and a counterattack”.
Scottish Conservative candidate for Perthshire North, Murdo Fraser, said: "This is not the first time we have seen such meddling by hostile foreign regimes, but it is deeply concerning that Iran's operation to manipulate Scottish democracy is becoming increasingly sophisticated.
"Five minutes on Twitter is all it takes to see the vast number of anonymous pro-Nationalist accounts dedicated to relentlessly targeting the Scottish Conservatives, as we are the only party with the strength to stop the SNP's destructive agenda.
"Even the SNP should understand that such tactics must be identified and stamped out. The social media companies seem to understand the dangers but there is clearly much more they should do.
"One problem is knowing which of these accounts are run from Tehran and which are 'sock puppets' controlled by anonymous Cybernat cowards who spew out abuse from behind a keyboard."
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