YouTube appears to be making money from the accounts of sanctioned Iranians

Like the United States The war with Iran continues to ravage the Middle East, with new research shared exclusively with WIRED showing that YouTube hosts and potentially profits from dozens of channels linked to US-sanctioned groups linked to the Iranian government, including several with direct ties to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The research, conducted by the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project, identified more than 75 channels that appear to be operated by entities that have been formally sanctioned by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which has been enforcing sanctions on Iran for decades.

Channels are monetized, which means YouTube shows ads on its videos that generate revenue. The researchers documented advertisements for companies ranging from Subaru and Verizon, Turbo Tax, the weight-loss drug Ozempic, and fast food outlet KFC. In one case, researchers observed a US Customs and Border Protection announcement appearing on a video produced by Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts.

“This means that YouTube placed an ad paid for with US tax dollars on a channel affiliated with an Iranian government ministry,” the researchers wrote. US Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment.

“The numerous owners of all of these YouTube channels include Iranian individuals and entities that are not only subject to the comprehensive US embargo on Iran, but are subject to OFAC sanctions under a variety of sanctions programs, including counterterrorism, nonproliferation, human rights violations, or those of the Iranian government more generally,” Kian Mishkat, an attorney specializing in US economic sanctions who reviewed the research, tells WIRED.

“Google is committed to complying with applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws,” says Google spokesperson Nate Vonhouser. “If we find that an account violates our policies, we take appropriate action.”

YouTube was officially banned in Iran in 2012, but the regime still uses it to share propaganda. Google’s publisher policies, which apply to YouTube, state that the company’s advertising tools “may not be used for or on behalf of” parties in Iran.

In 2024, YouTube took some action, shutting down an account linked to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Due to imposed US sanctions, Iranian state-owned channels are not allowed to broadcast on YouTube,” the company said at the time.

TTP researchers searched the platform for the names of individuals directly sanctioned by the United States as a national security threat, as well as accounts apparently run by Iranian government officials, and identified a total of 84 channels. They all ran in-video ads on their channels, including In-Feed Ads, In-Stream Ads, and YouTube Shorts Ads.

The individuals subject to sanctions include Babak Zanjani, a businessman who helps Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps evade sanctions; Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s new supreme leader who has threatened US forces in the region; Naji Sharifi Zindashti, who is accused of targeting Iranian opponents abroad for assassination, including two Maryland residents.

According to the researchers, Al-Mustafa International University, an Iranian Islamic religious school that was sanctioned in 2020 for indoctrinating and recruiting foreign intelligence sources, has at least four channels on YouTube, including channels in English and French. The channels, which feature video courses and lectures, were monetized through in-stream and in-feed advertising, including ads for BJ’s Wholesale Club and Warner Bros.’ horror movie They will kill you.

Among the government entities identified as having YouTube channels running advertisements was Iran’s special forces counter-terrorism unit, which was accused of using lethal force on unarmed protesters. Iran’s state broadcaster, Fars News Agency, which is known for spreading misinformation and propaganda, has a YouTube channel that displays ads.