State Hate How Iran's Press TV Uses Social Media to Promote Anti-Jewish Hatred

Key Findings:

This report argues that Iran’s Press TV’s flagship video series project Palestine Declassified constitutes a foreign state hate operation, aimed at sowing division and maximizing visibility through the use of social media's algorithmic biases. It shows how Palestine Declassified acts as an influence campaign through social media platforms, targeting British Jews and spreading dangerous antisemitism with impunity.

The Islamic Republic of Iran remains the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism, antisemitism, and Holocaust denial. Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran’s Islamic Republic, was instrumental in forming a state ideology that presents Jews as a malign influence on Muslim societies. According to this ideology, Zionism — the movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in Israel — is a Jewish-Christian conspiracy to oppress Muslims around the world. Besides threatening the State of Israel with genocide, Tehran and its armed proxies have for decades targeted Israelis, Jewish communities around the world, and Western nationals with indiscriminate terrorist attacks.

Press TV, founded by Iran’s state-controlled media corporation in 2007 to break “the global media stranglehold of Western outlets” and “counteract the lies of the Western media”, promotes antisemitic views, Holocaust denial, and discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals and women. The broadcaster’s role in the Iranian state network is to openly influence Western audiences and align them with Iran’s narratives and goals (despite self-styling as an independent and unbiased source of news). Press TV has repeated the Iranian state’s propaganda narratives about the current anti-government protests, promoting claims that Mahsa Amini’s death was “caused by an illness rather than alleged blows to the head or other vital body organs.”

This report identifies five key antisemitic narratives promoted by Palestine Declassified: that “Zionists” control world events, that they have a “stranglehold” over the media, that they are “grooming” young people, that they control UK institutions and that they are perpetrating a “witch hunt” against critics such as the UK Labour Party. The project’s lead presenters have both been accused of antisemitism: 1. David Miller was dismissed from his role at Bristol University, UK, after he claimed that Jewish students critical of his views were “directed by the state of Israel”. 2. Chris Williamson, a former MP, was suspended from the UK Labour Party after dismissing concerns about antisemitism in the party as “smears” and “bullshit”. 

Press TV has been removed from television networks and banned by YouTube, forcing it to rely on its remaining social channels to reach an audience of 11.5 million followers. Web traffic data shows that Press TV’s website primarily reaches a Western audience. Analysis of Twitter accounts promoting the project’s content show that a third have shared left-leaning hashtags, compared to just 11% that shared right-leaning ones. Nearly half of comments on Palestine Declassified episodes hosted on the Press TV website are classified as antisemitic, including Holocaust denial and calls for violence.

UK Jewish organizations have had to issue warnings about hate directed at schools and community groups targeted by Palestine Declassified.

CCDH and ADL recommend:

(1) Social media platforms maintain content moderation teams with the priority to limit hateful rhetoric, including attacks on the global Jewish community, and enforce comprehensive plans for addressing antisemitism on their platforms; (2) Social media platforms should take into account any broadcasting bans or decisions of broadcast regulators when determining if social media accounts associated with relevant entities violate community standards; (3) Treat Press TV and its Palestine Declassified as a foreign state hate operation subject to sanctions if authorities determine any association between entities currently under multinational sanctions.