Max Lesser | July 1, 2025
The “Iran Hayom” network posts anti-Israel propaganda, in Hebrew and English, across X, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, and YouTube. Its name is a play on the widely read Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, which publishes in Hebrew at israelhayom[.]co[.]il and whose English website is israelhayom[.]com. The Iran Hayom logo even borrows design elements from Israel Hayom. An Israeli reader scrolling casually through their feed might even read Iran Hayom content and think the Israeli paper had posted it.
Iran Hayom does not identify the parties behind it, but FDD found a related website, iranhayom[.]ir, which shares a dedicated web hosting server with an Iranian video creation site, indicating the same entity created both sites. Public internet records tie the video creation site to an individual who previously worked for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), a regime media outlet that the United States has sanctioned for broadcasting forced confessions, among other offenses.
Posting Propaganda Before, During, and After the 12-Day War
Iran Hayom created most of its channels in April 2025 and continues to actively post content as of June 29. When Israel began its strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leaders on June 13, Iran Hayom began posting from a second X account, likely as a backup in case X removed its primary account.
Before June 13, the network posted pro-Khamenei, pro-Palestinian, and anti-Israel messages. It also repeatedly claimed that Iran had the right to enrich uranium for its nuclear program. Starting on June 13, following Israeli strikes on Iran, the network shifted its focus almost completely to the Israel-Iran conflict, issuing threats to Israelis and amplifying disinformation.
Since Israel and Iran entered a ceasefire on June 24, the channel has generally sought to cast Iran as victorious and Israelis as monstrous.
Pro-Regime Iranian National Involved in Creation of Iran Hayom
FDD discovered a website that is clearly associated with the network: iranhayom[.]ir. It uses Iran’s top-level domain (.ir), which requires registrants to provide valid Iranian government documentation, strongly suggesting that an Iranian national created the site.
Publicly available DNS records — essentially the internet’s phone book — show that iranhayom[.]ir relies on videoir[.]com to manage its email, web traffic, and broader online infrastructure. Videoir[.]com is a free Iranian video creation platform that allows users to generate templated video content for social media and marketing. Additionally, both iranhayom[.]ir and videoir[.]com are hosted on the same dedicated web hosting server (94.182.227[.]19), further demonstrating a single entity likely created both websites.
WHOIS records — which show who registered a domain and other technical details — for videoir[.]com identify the registrant as a man named Hossein Javadi. A 2017 post on a Telegram channel that promotes resumes of Iranian media personnel includes Javadi’s full resume, confirming that he was in fact behind the creation of videoir[.]com. Javadi’s resume also shows he previously worked for HispanTV, a Spanish-language news channel run by IRIB.
Javadi’s previous experience producing content for a pro-regime propaganda outlet — alongside the connections between iranhayom[.]com and videoir[.]com — suggests he is likely involved in the creation or operation of Iran Hayom. However, FDD has not yet determined whether Javadi has acted alone or alongside other pro-regime Iranian nationals or the Iranian government.
While many social media platforms have policies against deceptive content — which often help them take down covert influence operations that seek to obscure the identity of their operators — propaganda that threatens or otherwise glorifies violence presents a different challenge.
Regardless, many platforms have policies that clearly prohibit language threatening, inciting, or glorifying violence. Several of Iran Hayom’s posts clearly violate these policies, such as one that states “Ali’s sword will threaten Khyber [sic] again,” an antisemitic reference to the 7th-century Muslim slaughter of the Jewish community in Khaybar. Major social media platforms should accordingly take down this network and should have acted more quickly to remove it as soon as it started posting threats.
Max Lesser is a senior analyst on emerging threats at the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from CCTI and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CCTI. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
Many thanks for the heads-up!