Show caption Men read headlines in front of a newspaper stand in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images US news US cuts funds for ‘anti-propaganda’ Iran group that trolled activists The Iran Disinformation Project was funded by a state department group created to counter foreign propaganda Julian Borger in Washington Fri 31 May 2019 22.04 BST Share on Facebook

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The US state department has cut off funding to a group that purported to combat Iranian propaganda, after it was found to be trolling US journalists, human rights activists and academics it deemed to be insufficiently hostile to the government in Tehran.

The Iran Disinformation Project was funded by the state department’s global engagement centre which was created to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation. In recent weeks however, the group’s Twitter account @IranDisinfo targeted BBC journalists, thinktank experts and civil society advocates, denouncing them as being “mouthpieces” and supporters of the Iranian government.

In one case they singled out a researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), Tara Sepehri Far, because she had looked into the human rights impact of sanctions on ordinary Iranians.

The group also focused on supporters of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which Donald Trump withdrew from last year, particularly the National Iranian American Council, which has advocated nuclear diplomacy with Tehran. It used the hashtag #NIACLobbies4Mullahs.

In response to a request for comment, a state department spokesperson said: “The bulk of the work by @IranDisinfo has been in line with the scope of a project with the Department of State. We have, however, identified recent tweets that fall outside the scope of the project to counter foreign state propaganda or disinformation.”

The statement added: “Today, the Department suspended the funding for the Iran Disinfo project until the implementer takes necessary steps to ensure that any future activity remains within the agreed scope of work.”

Many of the group’s controversial tweets were deleted on Friday.

Brett Bruen, who was director of global engagement in the Obama White House, said that the global engagement centre was originally created to counter Russian and Isis disinformation and propaganda. However, under the Trump administration, it was starved of funds and personnel, and has an operating budget of just $20m. Lea Gabrielle, a former navy intelligence officer and Fox News journalist was hired to run it in February.

“It is not being used to deal with Russian disinformation or Isis propaganda, but they are syphoning money off to attack the Iran [nuclear] deal and Iran,” Bruen said. “We know that information warfare is a serious and damaging threat, but the centre is being treated by the Trump administration like it is a reserve for dipping in to for pet political projects.”

Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s executive director for the Middle East and North Africa, welcomed the speed of the state department decision to cut funding to Iran Disinformation Project.