By CARLO BOFFA, EU Correspondent
Europol took down thousands of internet pages linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and suspended its main X account in the European Union, the policing body said on Monday.
The operation was led by Europol’s Internet Referral Unit and involved 19 countries. It identified a total of 14,200 online posts linked to the IRGC, which the group used to spread propaganda.
The content was disseminated through mainstream social media platforms, as well as streaming services, blog hosting sites and standalone websites in multiple languages, including Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, English, French, Persian and Spanish.
“The material ranged from speeches blending religious martyrdom narratives with highly charged political messaging to AI-generated videos glorifying the IRGC and calls to avenge the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,” Europol said in a statement.
“The interconnectedness of IRGC-linked websites operating across multiple languages offered important insights into the network’s online architecture.”
The IRGC is a central pillar of Iran’s military and was involved in suppressing the January mass protests against the regime, in which at least 6,800 people were killed, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The European Union designated the IRGC as a terrorist organisation on Feb.19.
Europol found that the paramilitary group uses cryptocurrency transactions to sustain and amplify its online operations and bypass financial sanctions. It also relies on a network of hosting service providers across multiple countries, including the United States and Russia, to maintain its online presence.
The investigation also helped trace and remove content produced by IRGC-linked proxies including Hezbollah, Ansar Allah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and HAYI.
The 19 countries involved were Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and the United States.
They cooperated between Feb.13 and April 28 to collect intelligence, cross-check targets and carry out joint referrals to online platforms.
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