International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM), an Iranian political influence & disinformation operation, is linked to Seraj Cyberspace Organization, one of IRGC's media cartels.
Last Thursday the JC published an exclusive on Iran’s shadowy propaganda network. We looked into this.
WHOIS records show that the iuvm[.]net, iuvm[.]org and iuvm[.]info domain were registered on 16 June 2013. A search against saved pages on the Internet Archive Website show that IUVM was initially launched as a "discussion" forum for members.
The names of some of the first forum members should be familiar to those who'd followed previous reporting on Iran's disinformation operation and linked domain name seizures by the US government.
We located posts from October 2014 on Facenama, an Iranian social media platform, by an IUVM verified account advertising free services offer to members, including free Website hosting, free VPN, free mail server, free graphic and design services, and more.
IUVM also put out a message with a contact phone number and address asking people to join IUVM and use their free services.
Also in October 2014, a similar message was placed on IUVM Aparat channel, an Iranian YouTube clone.
The same phone number and address was found on a saved page of the Islamic Revolution Digital Media Festival's Website; irdmfestival[.]ir. This digital media event was initially launched as Seraj Festival.
A list of IUVM Members was published on the iuvm[.]org Website; the page was captured on 25 December 2014.
Reverse WHOIS lookup for Owner Nane / Registrant Email Address, etc shows that many of these domains are connected. And many of these domains have either been seized or are not functional and offered for sale
IP address history for irdmfestival[.]com / irdmfestival[.]ir reveals that both domains were until early March 2019 on IP 188.253.2.20, the owner was Seraj Cyberspace Organization*. Both are now on IP address 94.182.227.42.
*The IP address owner's name has recently been changed from Seraj Cyberspace Organization to Atieh Ertebat Kish.
The following IUVM's Members' domains names are/were hosted on AS62048.
We also located on these IPs antisemitic, anti-Israel & US propaganda Websites.
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We watched the video and it feels as if the investigation team was working towards a predefined outcome that Israel's actions "could be a war-crime".
No new evidence came to light from this investigation, so it is hardly what we would class as an investigation, rather an attempt to frame already available information as something new and sinister. The NYT appears to be taking sides framing Israel as the aggressor.
This appears to be disinformation. It was reported hours ago that "initial investigations carried out by the Israeli and Palestinian security forces indicated that the shooting was not carried out by Israeli settlers but rather by Palestinians in an internal incident"
This video was edited and manipulated to appear to be showing Israeli soldiers using a child as a human shield. We located a longer version of the video. In reality quite the opposite took place, let us present the facts.
This incident took place on 23 December 2016 during the weekly demonstration in Kafr Qaddum where Arabs march towards a Jewish settlement, riot, burn tires and throw rocks at soldiers.
On that day, the Israeli security services ambushed the rioters but only a child, Mumin Murad Shteiwi (مؤمن مراد شتيوي), 7 at the time, was caught. The others escaped.
This is disinformation. It's well known that the people behind this horrendous fire-bombing are 3 Israeli-Arab men who misidentified the boy's home for a Jewish one. They have been arrested and charged.
We traced the source materials for this propaganda video; it is from B'tselem articles and videos from June 2017 & May 2018. However there are significant omissions.
- The fence and gate was put in place because of routine stone throwing at civilians, cars passing by, the bus stop across the street and border police. There was also a fatal stabbing attack of a civilian there, Genadi Kaufman, in 2015.
We were alerted to antisemitic tweets that have been made in 2014 by Twitter account @sarahjoe93 allegedly owned by Mia Khalifa. We decided to investigate and we can say with certainty that we can link @sarahjoe93 to Mia Khalifa who is now tweeting from @miakhalifa
Sarah Joe appears to be Mia Khalifa's birth name and 93 refers to the year she was born in.
WHOIS records show that the Website miakhalifa[.]com was registered to a Sarah Obrien.
"Mia Khalifa" trademark is owned by a Sarah Joe Obrien
The account @sarahjoe93 is now protected and its profile information and tweets have been deleted. A search on the Internet Archive Website suggest that this took place any time between Sat, 15 Aug 2020 00:09:13 GMT and Fri, 02 Oct 2020 10:11:17 GMT.