Pro-Iran 'content farm' networks rack up hundreds of millions of views, fact check finds

Days after United States strikes on Iran raised fears of a wider regional escalation, President Donald Trump declared the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran to be 'effectively over,' telling a White House briefing on November 9: 'We're just keeping it the status quo.' The remarks set off a fresh surge of online posts about the war, and a growing network of accounts claiming ties to Iran's military has since accumulated millions of views.

An examination by DW Fact Check of several of these accounts found recurring signs of so-called content farm behavior. Experts who reviewed the material described the accounts as part of a broader ecosystem of pro-Iran content aggregators operating across multiple social media platforms. Content farms are websites, accounts or networks that churn out large volumes of cheaply produced material in short spans of time, driven by economic incentives or by political influence campaigns.

The scale of the problem is considerable. The internet watchdog NewsGuard has documented 165 false claims about the Iran war that have collectively been watched hundreds of millions of times, only a few of which originated from Iranian state media. Most pushed a pro-Iran agenda, leaned increasingly on AI-generated images, and sought to discredit accurate reporting by authentic outlets as fabricated. A separate analysis by the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue identified pro-Iran networks on X showing coordination, cross-promotion and engagement tactics, while finding no links to state-affiliated actors.

Several of the accounts reviewed use the Iranian flag as a profile picture and some variation of 'Iran Military' in their usernames. Their posts often begin with the word 'BREAKING' and imitate the look of news updates, a formulaic format that is cheap and fast to produce. One account, 'Iran Military Media,' is linked to a Facebook page that Iranian state media have verified as authentic. It has drawn more than 290,000 followers on X, 597,000 on Facebook and 17,200 on Instagram. Since late 2025 it has published over 1,600 posts on X, generating more than 150 million views and 3.6 million likes.

'The accounts discussed are a central part of this ecosystem as they distribute the pro-Iranian content, state and non-state allied media at relatively low cost and generate millions of views,' said Moustafa Ayad, an expert in online influence operations at the ISD. Ayad examined 10 similar accounts over the same period, finding they together produced 12,588 posts, 353 million views and 6.6 million likes. He said the network is replicated on Facebook in numerous languages, a strategy he connected to what the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described as 'soft war.' Notably, only a small share of 'Iran Military Media's' views came from reposted material, with reach amplified when accounts promote one another.

A second account, 'Iranian Force,' has gathered more than 248,000 followers and typically posts around 10 times a day, sometimes exceeding 30 posts. Alongside 'BREAKING' alerts and AI-generated content, it also shares genuine footage framed through a pro-Iran lens. X lists the account as based in Pakistan, its profile history shows six username changes, and one post abruptly broke from war coverage to defend a Pakistani TikToker with an appeal in Urdu to Pakistan's government. Charlene Lin, an analyst at NewsGuard, told DW the account had been flagged for multiple false narratives and is linked to another account spreading the same claims in coordination.

A third account, 'Iran Army,' posts a handful of times daily, mixing AI-generated videos with footage from official Iranian Armed Forces briefings. One of its posts claiming 'the war has officially started' drew more than 41 million views. The wider ecosystem has faced some enforcement: since March, X has suspended a number of prominent 'Iran Military'-themed accounts, including 'Iran Military Monitor,' which had close to 2 million followers before its removal.

Earlier this year, Iranian state media issued a statement distancing itself from a range of 'Iran Military' accounts and said only one was authentic. Yet telling them apart is difficult, since the verified account uses the same branding, a similar profile picture, AI-generated content and frequent 'BREAKING' updates. Across the network, the framing is consistent: Iran is portrayed as militarily capable, able to retaliate and internationally supported, while contradictory information is rarely highlighted. DW Fact Check also found identical images and captions posted on the same day across different accounts and platforms.

'The pro-Iranian ecosystem online is large, multi-layered and cuts across almost all of the various popular social media platforms and messaging services,' Ayad said. '[It's] a key component to the Iranian government's ability to withstand challenges to its rule both from within and outside, while generating sympathy and connections with other online communities.'