Two Iranian state-controlled news outlets, Press TV and Al-Alam, were inaccessible Tuesday afternoonTop security officials seized approximately three dozen Iranian-based websites Tuesday, citing concerns over the spread of misinformation, a national security official told Fox News.
Two of the roughly 36 sites seized included Iranian state-controlled news outlets, Press TV and Al-Alam.
The sites were inaccessible Tuesday afternoon and instead displayed a single page that said each site had “been seized by the United States Government.”The Iran-backed Houthi rebel satellite news channel, Al-Masirah in Yemen, was also targeted by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The group said the shutdown came without warning, but it promised to continue its mission of “confronting the American and Israeli acts of piracy against our nation, by any means.”
The DOJ has yet to comment on the site seizures and it is unclear what “misinformation” was propagated.
The move by the DOJ comes as tensions between the U.S. and Iran have heightened following Tehran’s presidential election Saturday.
The Biden administration’s plan to bring Iran back under a nuclear arms agreement could prove more difficult with the election of judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi.
