Iran's online 'misinformation campaign' more widespread than originally thought

An alleged Iranian misinformation campaign targeting internet users worldwide is significantly bigger than previously thought, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday.

Facebook, Twitter and other companies last week said that multiple social media accounts and websites were part of an operation to covertly influence public opinion in other countries.

Google said it has also blocked YouTube channels and other accounts over a misinformation campaign linked to Iran.

A new analysis by Reuters identified 10 more sites and dozens of social media accounts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

US-based cyber security firm FireEye Inc and Israeli firm ClearSky reviewed Reuters' findings and said technical indicators showed the web of newly-identified sites and social media accounts - called the International Union of Virtual Media, or IUVM - was a piece of the same campaign.

Documents on the main IUVM website iuvm.org said its headquarters are in Tehran and its objectives include "confronting with remarkable arrogance, western governments and Zionism front activities."

The IUVM pushes content from Iranian state media and other outlets aligned with Tehran's government across the internet, often obscuring the original source of information such as Fars News Agency, PressTV and Hizballah-run al-Manar TV.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations last week dismissed accusations of an Iranian influence campaign as "ridiculous."

Ben Nimmo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, said the IUVM network was a "large-scale amplifier for Iranian state messaging."

"This shows how easy it is to run an influence operation online, even when the level of skill is low. The Iranian operation relied on quantity, not quality, but it stayed undetected for years."

Reuters recorded the IUVM network operating in English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, Russian, Hindi, Azerbaijani, Turkish and Spanish.

Much of the content is then reproduced by a range of alternative media sites run by Iran while purporting to be domestic American or British news outlets.

An article run by in January, for example, by Liberty Front Press - one of the pseudo-US news sites exposed by FireEye - reported on the Syrian battlefield gains made by the army of staunch Iran ally Bashar al-Assad.

That article was sourced to IUVM but actually lifted from two FARS news agency stories.