Alethea exposes Iranian disinformation impacting US election

Summary: Since October 9, 2024, the twice-banned Hoopoe Platform has returned to X for the third time under the username @HoopoeHub1 (184 followers), and is also operating accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and TikTok. Alethea observed that this network launched a paid advertising campaign on Instagram on October 22, 2024, adding two additional ads on October 23. Their activity has been successful in attracting at least one influential figure from communities who are typically associated with narratives opposing the U.S. and Israel, which appears to have resulted in an increase in engagement with their content.

Previously, this entity account has been attributed to Iran via evidence linking it to outlets affiliated with the International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM)—an entity sanctioned by the U.S. in 2020 for engaging in election interference, or potentially to Hezbollah with Iranian support.

Why it Matters: A covert Iranian-backed influence operation continues to promote anti-U.S. and anti-Israel narratives in English on at least four platforms – the outlet previously had a YouTube account which has since been suspended – despite prior suspensions by the X platform. The network attempts to degrade trust in U.S. elections and exploit partisan friction points in the current U.S. Presidential election cycle, including content targeting tensions among Arab Americans. All the content that Alethea has observed has been in English.

Alethea observed that the accounts frequently targeted the following policy issues with narratives favorable to Iranian interests:

U.S. Policy Toward Israel: The bulk of content posted by Hoopoe Platform criticized U.S. foreign policy toward Israel. These accounts regularly shared posts containing videos with footage from Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon, including reports about airstrikes, rescues, and humanitarian aid. This content was broadly critical of Israel and featured clips of American and Israeli politicians, organizers, and celebrities sharing their views about the ongoing war. Content criticizing Israel often overlapped with the other narratives described below.
Hurricanes: The network published a series of 11 videos on Hurricane Helene and Milton between October 9 and 12. Some of the content was basic news shorts on the hurricanes and the damage they inflicted on the U.S., while other content related the alleged inadequate disaster response to foreign aid funding to Israel. For example, one video suggested there was a gas shortage in Florida due to Hurricane Milton, while another claimed that the U.S. provided aid to Israel at the expense of American taxpayers in need of hurricane relief. More recently, on October 11, the @HoopoeHub1 account on X posted a video interview of Palestinian activist Omar al Fahmawi stating that Floridians’s tax money had helped evacuate Israelis in Israel, but not them.
U.S. Presidential Election: Hoopoe Platform targeted both former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, often posting content that coincided with recent events. A video published in July, which was flagged by Recorded Future, suggested that the first assassination attempt against Trump was the result of a failure by the U.S. Secret Service. More recent videos questioned the two-party system in the U.S. and accused both candidates Trump and Harris of supporting genocide in Gaza. A video from October 21 showed activists disrupting a Harris campaign event in Milwaukee, WI and accusing her of genocide for supporting Israel; another video showed activists disrupting a Harris campaign event in Detroit. In a September 26 interview with George Galloway, he said Kamala Harris could not win Michigan or Wisconsin.
Social Media Censorship: A video in September promoted allegations of politicized online censorship and reported that Elon Musk had accused Google of manipulating search results to bury Trump-related searches in the Google search results. In early October, a video showed former RT journalist Rachel Blevins complaining about a suspension of her YouTube channel as a result of her political views.

Engagement & Reach:

On X, engagement with Hoopoe Platform posts was low, usually receiving fewer than 100 views and less than a dozen reposts or favorites. Given that the X account was recently recreated after being suspended, it is likely still rebuilding its audience and may attract more engagement in the future. Engagement on Telegram was higher, with posts regularly garnering between 5-25 reactions. The top 80 videos on the HoopoePlatform1 TikTok channel received nearly 300,000 plays in total with others receiving around 400-600 plays per video. The original Facebook account was created on May 4, 2024 and the Instagram account in April of 2024, both of which still use the initial user handle “Hoopoeplatform.” Instagram posts tend to receive between 10-100 likes, while Facebook posts normally receive less than five reactions and less than five shares. We did not find evidence of content being posted on niche platforms with the exception of Minds, where a single user has shared their content since April 1, 2024; this user appears to be authentic with an interest in Middle East news.

On October 21, 2024, the Hoopoe Platform posted a video featuring Maram Susli, also known as Syrian Girl or @partisangirl, a Syrian-born Australian influencer known for sharing conspiratorial content, often focused on the Middle East. Beginning on October 22, 2024, the Hoopoe Platform amplified their content using three Instagram ads as of this reporting. Ad spending and targeting are not available for these ads. This caused engagement to increase in the three days following the ads. The entity has been amplified by possibly inauthentic accounts, but these accounts do not appear to have been made in order to amplify Hoopoe Hub’s content, and instead appear to do so organically.

Background:

The Hoopoe Platform was initially identified in August of 2024 as an expansion of Iran’s IUVM Influence Network.[1] Since June 2024, the network has been posting content related to the US elections, the Israel and Hamas war, and more generally anti-US narratives. The Hoopoe Platform produces short video content and interviews across multiple social media platforms including X, TikTok, Telegram and YouTube.

The initial X account for the Hoopoe Platform @hoopoeplatform was previously suspended and the subsequent @hoopoeplatform1 account remained active up until it was suspended on or around October 1, 2024. The logo and branding of the "Hoopoe Platform” includes a distinctive orange cartoonish hoopoe bird, a reference to the national bird of Israel.

The Hoopoe Platform evaded the suspension ban once again with its newest iteration on X, @HoopoeHub1. The corresponding TikTok, Telegram, Facebook, and Instagram accounts also remain active. The content on the current @HoopoeHub1 X account is identical to the content posted on the Hoopoe Platform Telegram channel, further indicating that these assets are run by the same actor. Besides the ban evasion account, we have identified a number of inauthentic X accounts promoting links to the Hoopoe Platform videos on TikTok.

Alethea's analysis was featured in the New York Times' latest coverage on foreign influence impacting the 2024 US Elections - read the full story here.

Content Examples: