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A new Clemson University report found dozens of social media accounts associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) pushing anti-Israel and anti-U.S. content to sow online discord during the ongoing Iran-U.S. war.
According to the report released on Wednesday, at least 62 accounts across X, Bluesky and Instagram were found to have connections to the IRGC despite claiming to be users from the Americas, England, Scotland or Ireland. Though most accounts were less than one year old, some were created as far back as December 2023.
“All these accounts systematically amplify politically divisive content and disinformation aligned with IRGC narratives, and they are designed to exploit regional fault lines to advance Iranian regime interests,” the report read.
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Clemson University reported dozens of social media accounts affiliated with the Iranian regime. (Kyaw Soe Oo/Reuters)
Prior to President Donald Trump’s and Israel’s military strikes against Iran, most accounts largely focused on divisive domestic positions. However, after Feb. 28, once Israel and the U.S. launched surprise airstrikes against Iran, they began pushing pro-Tehran messages in favor of the regime.
“There is a coordinated inauthentic social-media campaign targeting online discourse around the war between Israel, the United States, and Iran,” the report noted.
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The accounts also used several AI-generated images and false videos pushing inaccurate reports on the ongoing strikes.
“It will be important to continue to monitor communities found to be at particular risk of foreign influence to mitigate potential harms to authentic discourse. This is particularly true at times of global crisis,” the report concluded.
Accounts across Bluesky, Instagram and X pushed Iranian propaganda against Israel and the United States. (Anna Barclay/Getty Images)
In a response to Digital, Bluesky confirmed that all the accounts listed in the report were taken down for violating community guidelines.
A Meta spokesperson reiterated the company’s stance against content promoting terrorism and pointed out that, of the accounts listed in the report, one third of them were not active during the war while the remaining accounts have fewer than 2,000 followers combined.
“Meta prohibits coordinated inauthentic behavior and individuals and organizations tied to terrorism, and we remove violating accounts once we become aware of them,” a Meta spokesperson said.
Digital also reached out to X for comment.
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All the accounts followed by Clemson University began posting pro-Iranian messages after President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Iran. (Getty Images; Reuters)
Clemson University located 47 X accounts, nine Instagram accounts and five Bluesky accounts that fell into the IRGC “network.”
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The university found that X accounts alone created 59,403 original posts that were reposted thousands of times with organic engagement by thousands of followers, potentially reaching millions.
