DOJ says it has seized 36 Iranian media websites and sites for groups affiliated with Iran that are linked to Iranian disinformation for violating US sanctions
The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it seized 36 Iranian-linked websites, many of them associated with either disinformation activities …
Reuters
Context & Ripple Effects
The action follows the DOJ’s earlier seizure of 92 Iran-linked disinformation domains, including sites presented as U.S. news outlets. It establishes domain seizure under sanctions authorities as a repeatable response to state-linked influence infrastructure, rather than a one-off takedown.
First-order effects
The 36 named Iranian-linked websites are removed from their existing domains, immediately disrupting the outlets and Iran-affiliated groups that used them to distribute material.
The DOJ expands its sanctions enforcement against Iranian-linked online operations from the prior 92-domain action to another set of alleged disinformation sites.
Second-order effects
Iran-affiliated operators lose established web addresses and must rebuild audience access elsewhere, making their distribution infrastructure more disposable and costly to maintain.
If this enforcement pattern persists, influence operations will increasingly be contested through control of internet infrastructure and accounts, not only through attribution or criminal cases.
The recurring use of seizures against Iranian and Russian-linked networks points to a durable U.S. strategy of disrupting distribution channels at scale when they are tied to sanctions or foreign influence activity.
The trend: U.S. enforcement is increasingly treating domains and social accounts as operational infrastructure that can be seized to disrupt state-linked disinformation networks.
In what seems to be a coordinated action, a similar message appears on the websites of Iranian and regional television networks that claims the domains of the websites have been “seized by the United States Government.” https://twitter.com/...
Beyond all reason. And people wonder why nations are increasingly choosing to build their own sovereign webs. It's so lunacy like this doesn't happen https://twitter.com/...
A reminder that there is no “international” TLD (Top-Level Domain). .net is an US domain. If you use it, you depend on US laws and politics. https://www.reuters.com/... (from @arnaud_thurudev ) #DNS
A reminder that .com domains can be seized. A reminder that .cat domains were seized in 2017 as part of the Spain/Catalonia episode. DNS will become even more of a battlefield, which is part of why we need decentralized DNS like ENS, HNS, Unstoppable, Blockstack, and the like. ht…
The US government unilaterally censoring websites on a global scale based on vague “disinformation” claims. Glad we can be assured this power definitely won't be abused or copied, or backfire https://www.cnn.com/...
Click on any @presstv link and it won't work, because https://presstv.com/ has allegedly been seized by the United States government. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
With today's news that the US has seized the domain of Iran's PressTV, here's our story from last October about how PressTV was hosted on Webzilla of Steele dossier fame in US, thumbing its nose at efforts to isolate https://www.miamiherald.com/ ...
No doubt the defenders of ‘Freedom and Democracy’ in the #EU + NGO's worldwide, will be out in force to condemn the #US for this blatant attack on journalism? Freedom of speech is under threat from US Imperialism, and all those who support it. Speak out - Free Julian #Assange ...…
“A U.S. Justice Department spokesperson had no immediate comment. Two U.S. government sources indicated that the Justice Department was preparing an announcement on this issue.” #Iran https://www.reuters.com/...
U.S. seized 33 websites used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union and three websites operated by Kata'ib Hizballah that targeted the U.S. with disinformation campaigns and malign influence operations. https://www.justice.gov/...