A U.S. law enforcement campaign to crack down on Iran’s internet “influence” agenda has netted more than 100 domain names.
The Department of Justice announced the seizure of 27 domain names on top of the nearly 100 taken last month belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the radical unit behind the murder of many Americans.
The Iranians unlawfully used the websites “to further a global covert influence campaign,” the DOJ said.
“Within the last month we have announced seizures of Iran’s weapons, fuel, and covert influence infrastructure,” said John C. Demers, assistant attorney general. “As long as Iran’s leaders are trying to destabilize the world through the state-sponsorship of terrorism and the taking of hostages, we will continue to enforce U.S. sanctions and take other legal steps to counter them.”
The most recent seizures “were being used in violation of U.S. sanctions targeting both the government of Iran and the IRGC. Four of the domains purported to be genuine news outlets but were actually controlled by the IRGC and targeted audiences in the United States, to covertly influence United States policy and public opinion, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The remainder targeted audiences in other parts of the world.”
“The FBI is aggressively investigating any evidence of foreign influence and the unlawful spread of disinformation by hostile nations,” said FBI spokesman Craig D. Fair.
The warrant allowing the seizure this week said the domain names were being run by the IRGC in violation of the International Emergency and Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations.
The laws forbid U.S. persons from providing services to the government of Iran without a license.
“Further, the United States has found that the IRGC has provided material support to a number of terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Taliban. As such, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added the IRGC to its list of Specially Designated Nationals, imposing additional licensing requirements,” the DOJ said.
While the web domains were registered with U.S.-based registrars and used top-level domains, no one in the U.S. had granted a license.
Four domains — rpfront.com, ahtribune.com, awdnews.com and criticalstudies.org — were illegal because they were not registered as foreign agents.
The law requires, among other things, the submission of periodic registration statements containing truthful information about a site’s activities and the income earned from it.
The objective of the “news sites” was “to covertly influence the American people to change United States policy concerning Iran and the Middle East.”
“Fake news organizations have become a new outlet for disinformation spread by authoritarian countries as they continue to try to undermine our democracy,” Demers said.
