Iran using its cyber militias to impose its agenda

Islam Mohamed

Iran has been increasing dependence on its cyber militias in launching attacks against what it deems as enemy states.

The militias mainly work to spread lies about these states and influence the outcome of European elections in favor of politicians and political parties friendly to Tehran.

Facebook announced recently that it had suspended hundreds of fake accounts affiliated to Iran. The accounts, it said, were implicated in illegal activities by promoting fake content on the internet.

The Iranian state television used cyber militias in publishing news in support of Iran’s policies since 2011, according to the administration of Facebook.

It said it had cancelled out eight companies in the past few weeks, including one company linked to the Iranian state television authority.

The company, it said, worked to influence the outcome of elections inside the Republican Party in the U.S. in 2012.

In 2014, the same company used photos and caricatures to support the independence of Scotland from the UK, the Facebook administration said.

The Iranian television authority was involved in electronic deception campaigns, a Facebook security official said.

He added that the television had used more than 500 fake accounts in order to influence the elections inside the American Republican Party.

This came only a week after the chief of staff of the Iranian army revealed that Iranian authorities had arrested 3,600 people for spreading rumors in cyberspace.

The arrest of these people, some people say, attests to the desire of Iranian authorities to monopolize the truth.

Meanwhile, British universities working to develop a vaccine or a medicine for the coronavirus had come under cyber attacks, some of them from Iran, according to media reports.

The attacks aimed at stealing the results of researches made by these universities, they said.