The Digester

Iran has overhauled its online influence operations to flood social media with AI-driven propaganda and targeted messaging while restricting domestic internet access and pressuring expatriates.

Iran redirected foreign influence operations after 28 February to focus exclusively on pressuring the US and Israel over the war.
State-linked actors and proxies flooded platforms including X, Instagram and Bluesky with targeted posts, memes and AI-generated videos.
AI-generated content circulated on social media included fabricated footage of strikes on the USS Abraham Lincoln and bomb damage in Tel Aviv.
Accounts that earlier promoted Scottish and Irish politics or US domestic grievances were repurposed to push Iranian state narratives.
Platforms suspended many inauthentic accounts while embassy and proxy posts continued to be amplified and reposted.
Iran imposed near-total internet blackouts and threatened penalties for satellite internet use inside the country.
Authorities reportedly pressured Iranians abroad with warnings about citizenship revocation or harm to relatives to deter anti-regime posts.
Analysts describe the campaign as an asymmetric information strategy designed to complement military retaliation and increase moral pressure on the US and Israel.

Iran shifts social media operations into an information war after US and Israeli strikes

Articles