The U.S. Justice Department seized roughly three dozen state-linked news websites mostly linked to Iranian disinformation efforts on Tuesday, it has been reported.
The move appeared to be a far-reaching crackdown on Iranian media amid heightened tensions between the two countries after the election of new Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.
It also comes after President Joe Biden had vowed to start a cyber war against Russia in retaliation for any future hacks of companies and critical infrastructure in the United States.
Iranian state-run news agency IRNA announced the U.S. government seizures without providing further information, the Associated Press reported.
The American government has not officially announced the news but an official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that the U.S. had effectively taken down the websites.
Another official who spoke with Reuters told the outlet that an announcement about the takedowns was expected to come soon.
Federal takedown notices also appeared on Iran state television and other news websites linked to the Iranian government
The move appeared to be a far-reaching crackdown on Iranian media amid heightened tensions between the two countries after the election of new Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi
The American government has not officially announced the news
Notices appeared earlier on Tuesday on a number of Iran-affiliated websites saying they had been seized by the U.S. government as part of law enforcement action, Reuters reported.
Iranian news agencies said that the U.S. government had seized several Iranian media websites and sites belonging to groups affiliated with Iran such as Yemen's Houthi movement. Some sites later started to display as normal.
The website of the Arabic-language satellite news channel Masirah TV, which is run by Yemeni Houthis, read: 'The domain almasirah.net has been seized by the United States Government in accordance with a seizure warrant ... as part of a law enforcement action by the Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement and Federal Bureau of Investigation.'
The site quickly opened up a new, working website at www.almasirah.com. That Al-Misrah website address is now filled with news articles about groups condemning the seizures by the U.S. government.
Yemen's Houthi rebel group announced that its Al-Masirah channel would continue its mission of 'confronting the American and Israeli acts of piracy against our nation, by any means.'
Iran's Arabic language Alalam TV said on its Telegram channel: 'U.S. authorities shut down Al-Alam TV's website.'
Federal takedown notices also appeared on Iran state television's Press TV and on Arabic-language Bahraini independent channel LuaLua TV, which broadcasts from Britain.
The U.S. government also took over the domain name of the news website Palestine Today, which reflects the view points of Gaza-based Islamic militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, redirecting the site to the same takedown notice.
Domains tied to Iran-backed groups in Iraq and to Hezbollah, the Lebanese military-political faction, were also frozen with the US Justice Department message, AFP reported.
Most of the domains seized appeared to be '.net' and '.com' domains, which are generic top-level domains as opposed to country-specific domains. Seizing a
