The US Justice Department said on Tuesday it seized 36 Iranian-linked websites, associated with either disinformation activities or violent organizations, Reuters reported.
Washington has reportedly taken them offline for violating US sanctions. But several of the sites were back online within hours with new domain addresses.
The sites seized included Press TV, the Iranian government's main English-language satellite television channel, and Al Alam, its Arabic-language equivalent. Both came back online using Iranian domain addresses Alalam.ir and Presstv.ir.
"Today, pursuant to court orders, the United States seized 33 websites used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU) and three websites operated by Kata’ib Hizballah (KH), in violation of US sanctions," the department said in a statement.
Kataib Hezbollah is one of the main Iran-aligned Iraqi militia groups and has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States.
The Justice Department said the 33 domains used by IRTVU are owned by a United States company and that IRTVU did not obtain a license from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control prior to utilizing the domain names.
