Fact check: 'Iranian' content farms reach millions of views on social media

Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has examined a network of social media accounts that claim links to Iran's military and have collected millions of views. The activity comes as fears of regional escalation have grown following US strikes on Iran. On November 9, US President Donald Trump said at a White House briefing that the US-Israel war with Iran was "effectively over", and posts about the war surged online again afterwards.

What content farms are

Content farms are websites or social media accounts, or networks of them, that produce large amounts of cheap content in a short time. They can be driven by economic incentives, but may also serve as tools for political influence. The accounts DW reviewed showed recurring signs: repetitive formats, posts that often begin with "BREAKING" and mimic news alerts, and cheaply made, often AI-generated or AI-enhanced images and videos.

The accounts

"Iran Military Media" has about 290,000 followers on X, 597,000 on Facebook and 17,200 on Instagram. Since late 2025 it has published more than 1,600 posts on X, which drew over 150 million views. Iranian state media have verified it as authentic. "Iranian Force" has more than 248,000 followers, and X lists it as based in Pakistan. A post by "Iran Army" claiming "the war has officially started" received more than 41 million views.

Moustafa Ayad of the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) examined 10 more similar accounts, which together accounted for 353 million views. He links the strategy to what he describes as the "soft war" outlined by the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. ISD found no links to state-affiliated actors. The internet watchdog NewsGuard has identified 165 false claims about the war that have been watched hundreds of millions of times.

Some accounts have faced restrictions on X. Since March, several have been suspended, including "Iran Military Monitor", which had close to 2 million followers.