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US takes down Iran-linked news sites, alleges disinformation

25 points by csomar 5y ago

perihelions 5y ago
Interestingly, PressTV appears to retain control of its Twitter account: https://twitter.com/PressTV https://twitter.com/PressTV Did the DoJ choose not to pursue it, or did Twitter's lawyers successfully challenge their warrant (while DNS registrars rolled over)? If that's the case, would Twitter likely be under a gag order about it, as CNN was?
ksd482 5y ago
archive link https://web.archive.org/web/20210622225435if_/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-says-state-linked-sites-seized-by-us-reasons-unclear/2021/06/22/e84fa400-d385-11eb-b39f-05a2d776b1f4_story.html https://web.archive.org/web/20210622225435if_/https://www.wa...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
Rebelgecko 5y ago
At face value, hijacking/seizing DNS for websites because they spread disinformation is kind of horrifying. Is this precedent less scary than it seems?
- uncoder0 5y ago
  yeah if misinformation is so bad they should seize twitter.com and facebook.*
- Tepix 5y ago
  It completely crazy and I'm very surprised it hasn't hit the HN front page yet. The number of US websites that spread misinformation is near infinite yet i've never heard of them getting seized for that reason. I wonder if the US agencies pressured a registrar or a registry to gain control over the domains? If it's the registrar then you could pick one outside of US juristriction. If they went after the registry then it's a much bigger issue, the entire TLD has to be considered problematic. Edit: The US claims that the american companies that owned these domains failed to obtain licenses required due to US sanctions.
path2power 5y ago
Why did the takedown notice have text in Arabic when Iranians speak Persian? This is what made me think it was fake, at first.
alessivs 5y ago
Domain presstv.ir is still functional. Here's their reporting on the events[1]. [1]: https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/06/22/660671/Iranian-Regional-TV-channels-seized-US-government https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/06/22/660671/Iranian-Regi... Edited to remove co.uk and tv, which seem to be undergoing some kind of maintenance, or perhaps facing similar fate. Incidentally, the registrar of .tv is GoDaddy.

25 points by csomar 5y ago

Interestingly, PressTV appears to retain control of its Twitter account: https://twitter.com/PressTV https://twitter.com/PressTV Did the DoJ choose not to pursue it, or did Twitter's lawyers successfully challenge their warrant (while DNS registrars rolled over)? If that's the case, would Twitter likely be under a gag order about it, as CNN was?

ksd482 5y ago

archive link https://web.archive.org/web/20210622225435if_/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-says-state-linked-sites-seized-by-us-reasons-unclear/2021/06/22/e84fa400-d385-11eb-b39f-05a2d776b1f4_story.html https://web.archive.org/web/20210622225435if_/https://www.wa...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Rebelgecko 5y ago

At face value, hijacking/seizing DNS for websites because they spread disinformation is kind of horrifying. Is this precedent less scary than it seems?

uncoder0 5y ago
yeah if misinformation is so bad they should seize twitter.com and facebook.*
Tepix 5y ago
It completely crazy and I'm very surprised it hasn't hit the HN front page yet. The number of US websites that spread misinformation is near infinite yet i've never heard of them getting seized for that reason. I wonder if the US agencies pressured a registrar or a registry to gain control over the domains? If it's the registrar then you could pick one outside of US juristriction. If they went after the registry then it's a much bigger issue, the entire TLD has to be considered problematic. Edit: The US claims that the american companies that owned these domains failed to obtain licenses required due to US sanctions.

path2power 5y ago

Why did the takedown notice have text in Arabic when Iranians speak Persian? This is what made me think it was fake, at first.

alessivs 5y ago

Domain presstv.ir is still functional. Here's their reporting on the events[1]. [1]: https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/06/22/660671/Iranian-Regional-TV-channels-seized-US-government https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/06/22/660671/Iranian-Regi... Edited to remove co.uk and tv, which seem to be undergoing some kind of maintenance, or perhaps facing similar fate. Incidentally, the registrar of .tv is GoDaddy.