Iran is engaging in a brazen propaganda effort to disrupt this year's U.S. presidential election, with a focus on undermining former President Donald Trump's campaign, The New York Times reported.
The U.S. government, tech company officials and Iran experts say Tehran's disinformation efforts have become more varied and ambitious than in past years, the Times reported Wednesday.
While appearing to be intent on sabotaging Trump's campaign, Iran's propaganda efforts also have targeted Vice President Kamala Harris and, when he appeared to be the presumptive Democrat nominee, President Joe Biden.
Iranian operatives this year have succeeded in hacking the emails of Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump.
"Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts, seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions, as we have seen them do in the past, including in prior election cycles," Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, said in a July release.
"They continue to adapt their cyber and influence activities, using social media platforms and issuing threats. It is likely they will continue to rely on their intelligence services in these efforts, as well as Iran-based online influencers, to promote their narratives."
Late last month, it was reported an Iranian hacking team that compromised the Trump campaign is known for placing surveillance software on the mobile phones of its victims, enabling them to record calls, steal texts, and silently turn on cameras and microphones, according to researchers and experts who follow the group.
Known as APT42 or Charming Kitten by the cybersecurity research community, the accused Iranian hackers are widely believed to be associated with an intelligence division inside Iran's military, known as the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC-IO.
Iran's government and the Guards rely on individuals who use social media platforms to push Tehran's views, The Times reported. They also commission projects from tech firms and start-ups in Iran, some of which are not fully aware of the projects' true purposes.
Iran's propaganda efforts in the past were overshadowed by similar campaigns coming from Russia and China. Now, Tehran appears determined to create internal discord and discrediting the U.S. democratic system more broadly.
"Iran's strategy in the field of information and propaganda is similar to how the Revolutionary Guards manage the proxy militias across the Middle East," Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Miaan Group, a human rights organization focused on the Middle East, told The Times. "They infiltrate gradually but forcefully and play the long game."
Iran also has used social media to stoke anti-Israel student-organized protests against the war in Gaza, with operatives providing financial assistance and posing as students, American intelligence assessments concluded, The Times reported.
Reuters contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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