US authorities demolished a range of Iran's state-linked news website domains, accusing the sites of spreading "disinformation," the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.
The crackdown is bound to heighten tensions between the two countries.
Dozens of websites have been demolished. Iran's intelligence agency IRNA said the US government announced the seizures without providing further information. On Monday, Iran's president-elect Ebrahim Raisi, known for his hostility to the West, ruled out meeting with President Biden or negotiating over Tehran's ballistic missile program.
Relations between Iran and the US have been tense ever since then-president Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed trade sanctions on the nation. The country, over time, has been violating restrictions in the nuclear deal. It is now enriching uranium to 60 per cent, which doesn't reach the weapons-grade level but is the highest level ever.
Iran provides support to militant groups in the region like the Lebanese militant Hezbollah and Yemeni Houthi rebels-- another issue the US and Iran don’t see eye to eye on.
Among the websites that were taken down on Tuesday include Iran state television's English-language arm Press TV, Yemeni Houthi-run Al-Masirah satellite news channel and Iranian state TV's Arabic-language channel-- Al-Alam. A notice appeared on the sites that were taken down "as part of law enforcement action" by the US Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The US said that the websites were waging a "global disinformation campaign" to push Iranian propaganda and influence US policy. San Francisco-based cybersecurity company RiskIQ found that 24 of the seized sites shared the same Amazon name server.
IRIB or the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting has a monopoly over all domestic airwaves, as there are no private television or radio stations in Iran.
In October 2020, US prosecutors took control of 92 domains, which were being used in a campaign by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), but, posing as independent media and spread political disinformation to targeted audiences in the United States, Europe, Middle East and south-east Asia.
