Researcher Exposes Coordinated Fake Accounts Promoting Pahlavi, Netanyahu

By Staff, Agencies

A US-based researcher has denounced a coordinated network of 1,653 fake social media accounts that promoted Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's former monarch, before shifting to support "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party during the recent election campaign.

"This is definitely not organic or spontaneous Iranian public opinion. It's coordinated, inauthentic political manipulation masquerading as grassroots support," Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and Democracy for the Arab World Now [DAWN], wrote on X on Monday. 

He said such operations had been ongoing for years, particularly since 2022, as "Israel" intensified its efforts to promote regime change in Iran.

His remarks followed an investigation by "Israeli" newspaper "Haaretz", which found that 1,653 X accounts previously identified as promoting Pahlavi had mobilized to encourage votes for Netanyahu and his Likud party. 

The accounts reportedly posed as Iranians inside Iran or abroad, publishing Hebrew-language messages urging voters to support Netanyahu "on behalf of the Iranian people."

The investigation, based on research by social media monitoring company Expose, documented coordinated activity during the campaign. 

In July, 185 accounts began interacting with Netanyahu's social media profiles and sharing posts attacking his political opponents. On election day, two accounts published 109 identical posts and simultaneously responded to 232 posts by 53 accounts. Following the election, the network reportedly returned to promoting Pahlavi.

Toossi also cited an October 2025 investigation by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which uncovered a separate network of fake accounts spreading AI-generated content encouraging unrest in Iran following US-"Israeli" aggression against the country in June 2025. 

Citizen Lab assessed that the operation was most likely conducted by an "Israeli" entity or a contractor working closely with it.