Iran has been accused interfering in the Scottish election by pushing fake news online.
A report by a right-wing think tank has accused the Middle Eastern country, which is hostile to the UK and America, of using Facebook accounts to spread disinformation about the election.
A report by the right-leaning think-tank the Henry Jackson Society found that Iran’s activities in cyber space are "designed to attack the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom”.
An extract from the soon to be published report highlights the Facebook account of a “fake Iranian online persona mocking the Scottish Conservatives”.
This was one of 446 accounts the social media giant closed for violating its policies against foreign interference.
The following month Facebook again took action against Iranian-controlled accounts and it said most of the activity was targeted towards Iraq, but was also aimed at Israel, Afghanistan and the UK.
The society’s report states: “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.
“Whilst there is no suggestion that Scottish nationalist politicians have encouraged or endorsed Iran’s interference, it sets a troubling precedent with the issue of a potential second referendum on Scottish independence a deeply contentious one.”
Foreign Office minister James Cleverly said the UK Government had serious concerns about Iran’s “destabilising behaviour” in the Middle East and more broadly.
He added: “How the international community responds to these kinds of accusations or concerns about cyber actions will be one of the things on the agenda of the G7 meeting that the Foreign Secretary will be hosting with foreign ministers from our economic and international partners.”
An SNP spokeswoman said: “The SNP will always work to counter the spread of disinformation.
“That is why we led the calls for the Russia report to be published, so work could start sooner rather than later to tackle the threat of foreign interference in UK and Scottish politics.”
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.”
