"Israel has long been engaged in influence operations against Iran, which the Israeli government views as an existential threat, analysts said.
A report published in October by the Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog group, concluded that a network of more than 50 inauthentic profiles on X, the social media platform, was organized by the Israeli government or a closely supervised subcontractor. The network, according to researchers, started ramping up its use of artificial intelligence early last year to spread narratives encouraging Iranians to revolt.
After a wave of protests in 2022, the National Iranian American Council commissioned a report about state-sponsored manipulation of social media. The report found “a coordinated campaign to manipulate social media algorithms and overwhelm targeted voices with disinformation, smears and threats” by using a large network of inauthentic accounts. The researchers said much of the activity then was most likely attributable to the Israeli government.
The online activity surrounding the current protests extends a yearslong “competition for who is going to be the dominant voice in the diaspora,” Jamal Abdi, the council’s president, said.
Golden Owl, a digital threat intelligence company in Spain, reported that it had uncovered two Iranian campaigns on X with more than 4,700 accounts pushing pro-government content."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/business/iran-internet-blackout-protests-disinformation.html
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