The popular streaming platform YouTube has continued to broadcast content by individuals and companies sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for supporting or participating in the Islamic regime, according to a new report by the Tech Transparency Project published last week.
TTP, a research initiative established by the nonprofit group Campaign for Accountability, identified numerous sanctioned entities operating on YouTube, including Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iran’s Assembly of Experts cleric Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri.
The entities included Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman sanctioned for helping the IRGC evade sanctions by laundering funds; an Iranian special forces unit accused of using lethal force on unarmed protestors; Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s new supreme leader who threatened US forces in the region and sanctioned in 2019 for both oil sales to the Assad regime and his role in the 1994 antisemitic attack in Buenos Aires; Naji Sharifi Zindashti, an Iranian official sanctions in 2024 who was accused of targeting regime opponents abroad for kidnapping and assassination; and multiple official and semi-official Iranian state broadcasters, including the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting which has been sanctioned by the US for more than a decade.
Zanjani owns multiple YouTube channels, according to TTP, including two for his holding company, DotOne. Under OFAC’s 50% rule, any company owned or controlled 50 percent or more by a sanctioned individual is also subject to sanctions.
The report found many accounts linked to sancctioned individuals and groups
Nobitex, Iran’s largest digital asset exchange, which was sanctioned on June 2 for “facilitating payments tied to Iran’s terrorist activities, sanctions evasion efforts, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-linked transactions,” also has a YouTube channel, as does Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex.
Additionally, TTP found that Surabaya Hobby CV, an Indonesian company that was sanctioned for providing Iran with drone components, has had a channel since October 2024 despite OFAC sanctioning the company in December 2023.
In one case, an advertisement was played on the channel for Iran’s Cultural Heritage Ministry, encouraging people to apply for jobs with US Customs and Border Protection.
While it is unclear if the channels have profited from their uploads, TTP stressed that YouTube may have violated US sanction laws by allowing the channels’ presence. Through allowing advertisements on the channels, YouTube has also likely profited from their presence.
“Until YouTube cleans up this problem, advertisers will be vulnerable to having their ads run on content from individuals and organizations deemed a threat to U.S. national security,” TTP concluded.
The Jerusalem Post has contacted YouTube's parent company, Google, for comment.
While Google has not yet responded to The Post, Google spokesperson Nate Funkhouser told Wired, “Google is committed to compliance with applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws… If we find that an account violates our policies, we take appropriate action.”
In the hours after TTP published its report, 63 of the channels were removed.