A network of fake news websites with ties to Iran has been uncovered by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), revealing efforts to spread disinformation targeted at minority and veteran voters in the upcoming U.S. elections. This discovery adds to concerns about the extent of Iran's influence on American websites and its attempts to interfere with the election process.

The FDD researchers identified at least 19 websites that posed as either news outlets or analysis sites. Among them, "Afro Majority" stands out for spreading favorable content about Vice President Kamala Harris and Black Lives Matter initiatives. Another site, "Not Our War," publishes critical posts about both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, often targeting U.S. veterans.

These findings reveal a coordinated influence operation, with five of the websites having previously been linked by other organizations to Tehran. While FDD did not directly link the sites to the Iranian government, the presence of pro-Iranian fake news and op-ed pieces on all the websites suggests a clear agenda.

Interestingly, artificial intelligence, including OpenAI's ChatGPT, was used to generate content for many of the websites. Microsoft and OpenAI had already exposed two of the websites last month, "Savannah Time" and "Nio Thinker," which were found to have ties to the Iranian government. "Savannah Time" claimed to be a news outlet for the swing state region of Savannah, Georgia, while "Nio Thinker" posed as a left-leaning site aimed at reducing support for Trump.

Several websites in the network targeted specific states, such as "Westland Sun," which aimed to influence voters in Michigan, a crucial swing state. These websites are hosted on servers outside the United States and are still operational despite being identified earlier by Microsoft and OpenAI.

The FDD has called on the U.S. government to collaborate with international partners to take down these sites. While they have shared their findings with the Biden administration, details about which agencies are involved have not been disclosed at this time.

Moreover, the lack of author bylines on articles and broken links to social media accounts raise doubts about the credibility of many of the websites. Despite their often-sophisticated designs, the presence of non-existent authors and dysfunctional social media links suggests a deliberate effort to disguise the true source of the disinformation.

The revelation of this Iranian-linked fake news network follows recent incidents of hacking and leak operations attributed to the Iranian government, targeting both the Trump campaign and the campaigns of Biden and Harris. Additionally, evidence from Google Cloud's Mandiant showed an Iranian counterintelligence operation using fake pro-Israeli websites to monitor potential dissidents.

With the U.S. elections approaching, the exposure of this network highlights the ongoing need for vigilance against disinformation campaigns aimed at influencing voter sentiment.