As many as 14,200 online posts linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which the European Union (EU) recently designated as a terrorist organization, have been targeted in a coordinated crackdown on terrorist content online. This was reported by the European police agency Europol on Monday, writes TASR.
The operation, led by Europol’s EU Internet Reporting Unit (EU IRU), aimed to identify and disrupt the group’s online presence, which it used to spread propaganda, recruit supporters and raise funds.
The Revolutionary Guards are the central pillar of the Iranian military apparatus and the European Union officially listed them as a terrorist organization on February 19 of this year. This designation allows the competent authorities to take action against the activities of its members and supporting entities in the EU.
The EU IRU, based in Europol’s European Counter-Terrorism Center (ECTC), searches for, analyzes and removes terrorist and violent extremist content on the Internet. In synchronized waves of action, a total of 19 countries joined forces to identify and disrupt IRGC-linked content on the Internet, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and the United States.
Between 13 February and 28 April this year, the authorities worked in synchronized phases under the coordination of Europol, gathering intelligence, cross-checking targets and making joint reports to online platforms.
Content was distributed through major social networks as well as streaming services, blogging platforms and standalone websites. The propaganda was identified in several languages, including Arabic, Indonesian, English, French, Persian, and Spanish. The material ranged from speeches combining narratives of religious martyrdom with purely political references to AI-generated videos glorifying the Revolutionary Guards, as well as calls for revenge for the killing of Iran’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In total, investigators identified 14,200 links linked to IRGC activities. The main account of the Revolutionary Guards on the X network, which had more than 150,000 followers, was blocked in the EU after this action, and thousands of other links on multiple platforms were removed. or are in the process of investigation and removal.
Terrorist networks are becoming more flexible and continue to adapt their methods, making continuous and coordinated action essential to limit their reach and impact, Europol added.
