"Individuals associated with the US military" are related to an online propaganda campaign , so says meta's latest report on threats caused by political rivalries on social media

Independent researchers said in August that the campaign was the first major covert pro-U.S. propaganda monitored by a major technology company.

The campaign was supported by the United States and its allies, while countries such as Russia, China and Iran opposed it.

But experts said it was largely ineffective.

Facebook has removed 39 accounts, 16 pages and two groups, as well as 26 Instagram accounts, for all violating the platforms 'policy against"coordinated false behavior".

"This network originated in the United States,"Meta said.

It focused on countries including Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Yemen - and used tactics that were common in anti-Western propaganda campaigns, including:

Creating imaginary characters

Creating artificial images

Broadcast campaigns across multiple platforms

"Lies and falsifications" of election campaigns in Britain

The accounts targeted at Iran criticized the Iranian authorities and their policies and broadcast publications on issues such as women's rights, researchers said.

Some US-backed media outlets pretended to be independent outlets, and some tried to transfer content from legitimate media outlets, such as BBC News in Russian, as their own.

The campaign was broadcast via several internet services, including Twitter and YouTube, according to meta.

"Although the people behind this operation tried to hide their identities and coordinate among themselves, the report found links to individuals associated with the US military,"the report said.

But most of the publications "had little interaction" from real users.

Andy Carvin, editorial director of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Laboratory in the United States, told the BBC when he first revealed the campaign that launching such campaigns by democratic countries would be "ineffective and counterproductive", because it means using "tactics used by opponents" and also means "diminishing public trust even more".

Meta's announcement confirms previous reports published by the Washington Post.

Sources told the newspaper that concern about the operation made the Pentagon complete a "comprehensive review" of how the US military conducts a secret information war.

The US Department of Defense told BBC News that it was "aware of the report published by Meta".

"At the moment, we do not have any further comments on the report or possible actions that the ministry may take as a result of the publication of the report,"she added.