Iran intensifies disinformation campaign to spread discord within US: Time magazine

Iranian state actors are intensifying their disinformation campaign on social media to spread discord and anti-Semitic tropes inside the US. (File/AFP)

• The social media accounts were traced to troll farms managed by the Iranian regime to sow disinformation
• The report comes the same day that a UK think-tank published a report saying Iran is behind fake news websites pushing anti-Saudi and anti-Israeli rhetoric

LONDON: Iran has intensified its activity on social media to sow discord in the US, Time Magazine revealed on Monday.
“Iranian state actors are intensifying their disinformation campaign on social media to spread discord and anti-Semitic tropes inside the US,” the American magazine said, citing two US intelligence officials.
The social media accounts were traced to troll farms managed by the Iranian regime to sow disinformation on the nuclear deal, the US announcement of withdrawing from Afghanistan, the guilty verdict of Derek Chauvin, and the 11-day war that rocked the Palestinian Gaza Strip last month.

Exclusive: Iran steps up efforts to sow discord inside the U.S. https://t.co/ecjdlgnBLI

— TIME (@TIME) June 7, 2021

“It’s a significant level of activity,” one official told Time. “It’s active enough that we’re tracking it.”
The story comes the same day that a UK think-tank published a report saying Iran is behind fake news websites pushing anti-Saudi and anti-Israeli rhetoric. 
The Henry Jackson Society report found that Iran used an elaborate network of websites in order to attempt to influence British politics.