7,000 phony accounts from iran. some of those accounts impersonated u.s. political candidates. while as of now iranian operations seem to lack the complexity of russia s interference, researchers are saying there are clear signs of shifting tactics. here s the kicker. what s known may be only small parts of much larger operations that remain currently undetected. joining me now on this is one of the co-authors of that report, tony romm, senior tech policy reporter. he s also an msnbc technology contributor. tony, thanks so much for joining us on this. very much appreciate it. drilling this down to specifics here. you report that cybersecurity company fire eye alleged that u.s. news sites may have been tricked into publishing letters to the editor penned by iranian operatives. it also, quote, catalogs fictitious twitter personas used by iranians that included a harvard university student, a michigan bodybuilder, and an
themselves and even not only at the debate but going around day to day to these events, articulating where they stand, how they differ with the other candidate. but don t make it personal. and hurtful. so at the end of the day, the party can come back together and win. because it s going to be a tough election. no doubt. thank you all so much. vaughn hillyard, mike fitzgerald, darrell west, and my friend elise jordan. now we have to turn to money, power, politics. the federal trade commission, the ftc, announced it is hitting facebook with the largest fine it has ever imposed, $5 billion bucks. it is also forcing the tech giant to stick to new rules designed to make sure facebook is doing everything it can to protect your privacy. this would settle an investigation that started more than a year ago after reports that cambridge analytica accessed the data of 87 million facebook users without their permission. we have the senior tech policy reporter for the washington post, he has be