Iranian Influence Network in Italy Exposed

The Iran­ian oppo­si­tion has report­ed on a vast Iran­ian covert oper­a­tion in Italy using cul­tur­al cen­ters, aca­d­e­m­ic pro­grams, and embassy per­son­nel to pro­mote Tehran’s polit­i­cal ide­ol­o­gy while intim­i­dat­ing Iran­ian dis­si­dents across the coun­try. On 7 July 2025, Iran Inter­na­tion­al report­ed that Ital­ian out­let Linki­es­ta’s months-long inves­ti­ga­tion revealed how the Islam­ic Repub­lic oper­ates “under the radar” through legit­i­mate insti­tu­tions to build con­sen­sus and con­duct sur­veil­lance oper­a­tions. The arti­cle begins:

Mean­while, Italy’s Linki­es­ta pub­lished the find­ings of a months-long inves­ti­ga­tion into the Islam­ic Repub­lic’s influ­ence net­work. “There is a silent Iran that runs through the mesh­es of Ital­ian soci­ety, not the one in war chron­i­cles or offi­cial press releas­es, but an Iran that acts under the radar,” the out­let wrote. They called the Cul­tur­al Cen­ter of the Iran­ian Embassy in Rome “an oper­a­tional hub that coor­di­nates events, con­fer­ences and exhi­bi­tions with spe­cif­ic polit­i­cal pur­pos­es: build­ing con­sen­sus around the regime and pro­mot­ing an image of Iran as a spir­i­tu­al, anti-impe­ri­al­ist and tol­er­ant state”. The inves­ti­ga­tion found that since 2009, Iran­ian invest­ments in aca­d­e­m­ic pro­grams across Italy have exceed­ed one mil­lion euros. These include joint cen­ters and exchange agree­ments with uni­ver­si­ties in Rome, Milan, Flo­rence, and Turin.

          Read more: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202507079848

Key Points

• Iran has invest­ed over one mil­lion euros in Ital­ian aca­d­e­m­ic pro­grams since 2009, estab­lish­ing joint cen­ters and exchange agree­ments with major universities
• The Cul­tur­al Cen­ter of the Iran­ian Embassy in Rome serves as an oper­a­tional hub coor­di­nat­ing events to build con­sen­sus and pro­mote Iran’s anti-impe­ri­al­ist image
• A ded­i­cat­ed 15–20 oper­a­tive unit inside the Iran­ian embassy over­sees cyber sur­veil­lance, field mon­i­tor­ing, and intel­li­gence report­ing to Tehran
• Iran­ian dis­si­dents report being fol­lowed after protests, with fam­i­ly mem­bers in Iran sub­ject­ed to house search­es and direct threats from embassy officials

Iranian Influence Operations: Global Disinformation and Propaganda Tactics 

Iran’s influ­ence oper­a­tions have expand­ed into a sophis­ti­cat­ed, glob­al­ly coor­di­nat­ed cam­paign that lever­ages dig­i­tal plat­forms, state media, and covert net­works to shape inter­na­tion­al nar­ra­tives and advance Tehran’s strate­gic inter­ests. Iran’s dig­i­tal strat­e­gy now includes advanced AI-dri­ven dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paigns on social media, where mul­ti­lin­gual con­tent is tai­lored to polar­ize audi­ences and ampli­fy anti-West­ern sen­ti­ment across regions—most notably dur­ing high-pro­file con­flicts, as seen when Iran orches­trat­ed fake news oper­a­tions that gar­nered over 100 mil­lion views. These cam­paigns are not con­fined to dig­i­tal spaces; Iran’s influ­ence web extends into Euro­pean pol­i­tics, where covert net­works seek to under­mine demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­si­tion and shape pol­i­cy debates through aca­d­e­m­ic and activist channels.

The regime’s efforts are also evi­dent in soft pow­er ini­tia­tives tar­get­ing West­ern activists and pub­lic opin­ion, exploit­ing anti-impe­ri­al­ist sen­ti­ments and cul­tur­al good­will to legit­imize its nar­ra­tives. Mean­while, Iran con­tin­ues to ramp up cyber-enabled influ­ence oper­a­tions, uti­liz­ing a blend of real infor­ma­tion and mis­lead­ing claims to obscure the truth and manip­u­late per­cep­tions. Social media plat­forms remain a crit­i­cal bat­tle­ground, with Iran­ian influ­ence net­works repeat­ed­ly dis­rupt­ed by glob­al tech firms, yet Tehran’s adapt­abil­i­ty ensures per­sis­tent threats to infor­ma­tion integri­ty worldwide.

Exter­nal References:

1. Iran Emerges as a Top Dis­in­for­ma­tion Threat in U.S. Pres­i­den­tial Race – The New York Times

2. FDD Iden­ti­fies 19 Web­sites as Part of an Iran­ian Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tion – Foun­da­tion for Defense of Democracies

3. Iran­ian dig­i­tal influ­ence efforts: Guer­ril­la broad­cast­ing for the twen­ty-first cen­tu­ry – Atlantic Council

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.