Europol removes over 14,000 IRGC-linked online posts in coordinated operation

Europol has announced that a total of 14,200 posts and links connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were targeted in a coordinated online content removal operation, according to a statement issued on May 18.

The operation, led by Europol’s EU Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU), involved 19 countries and focused on material used for propaganda distribution, recruitment, and fundraising activities.

The IRGC, a central component of Iran’s military structure, was officially listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union on February 19, 2026, a designation that allows law enforcement action against its members and affiliated networks within EU territory.

According to Europol, the identified content was spread across social media platforms, streaming services, blogs, and websites in multiple languages, including Arabic, Indonesian, English, French, Persian, and Spanish.

The materials ranged from speeches combining religious martyrdom narratives with highly emotional political messaging to AI-generated videos promoting the IRGC and calls for retaliation in support of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In total, investigators identified 14,200 links related to IRGC activity. Coordinated waves of removal requests were carried out throughout the operational phase. As a result, the IRGC’s main account on the social network X, which had more than 150,000 followers, was blocked within the EU, while thousands of other links across several platforms were either removed or are currently under review for deletion.

By Jeyhun Aghazada