Iran's Infowar: Lego, AI and ever tightening control | The Listening Post
About this episode
The episode discusses the Iranian government's use of information warfare, including innovative online strategies and brutal domestic tactics.
The information front has been central to the Iranian government’s war effort. For an external audience, there is an innovative online strategy that has consisted of AI Lego, memes and hip hop diss tracks directed at Donald Trump and the MAGA base. But this coexists with more brutal domestic tactics: crackdowns, arrests and internet blackouts. The result has been the Iranian authorities making use of the internet for PR internationally, while simultaneously preventing the Iranian people from openly accessing the net themselves. Contributors: Ali Hashem – Correspondent, Al Jazeera English Mehran Kamrava – Professor of Government, Georgetown University in Qatar Tara Kangarlou – Journalist & Author, The Heartbeat of Iran Maral Karimi – Lecturer, Toronto Metropolitan University On our radar The killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil unfolded in the manner that so many Israeli assassinations of journalists in Gaza have - minute by minute, hour by hour, in a pattern that has become shockingly familiar. There's the surveillance, the strike, the obstruction of rescue and then, the denial - Israel's insistence that it does not target journalists, medics or rescue workers. Meenakshi…
People in this episode
Host: Al Jazeera
Guests: Ali Hashem, Mehran Kamrava, Tara Kangarlou, Maral Karimi
Topics covered
- Iranian government control
- information warfare
- internet censorship
- AI and technology
- media and journalism
- political propaganda
Keywords
- Iran
- information warfare
- internet censorship
- AI Lego
- memes
- hip hop diss tracks
- political propaganda
- journalism
- media control
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Georgetown University, Toronto Metropolitan University
Places: Iran, Pakistan, United States, Israel
More episodes of The Listening Post
- Hormuz: Spin in the Strait | The Listening Post
- War spirals as information control tightens | The Listening Post
- “A war in search of a strategy” - Trump-Netanyahu's war with Iran | The Listening Post
- Trump, Iran and geopolitical mind games | The Listening Post
- The AI alarm cycle: Lots of talk, little action | The Listening Post
- The Epstein files cover-up: Botched or calculated? | The Listening Post
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Listening Post podcast page.