Hawzah News Agency- According to experts and analysts, one of the enemy's main objectives in producing and spreading fake news and fueling rumors is to erode social capital and public trust within our society.
Iran's Cyberspace Media Headquarters reported that in the first week of the Iranian month of Mehr this year, hostile and ill-intentioned media produced 73 fake news items against the country on Telegram alone. Notably, 61 of them — more than 83 percent — concerned foreign policy.
The production and dissemination of fake news and rumors is nothing new. In recent years, it has been one of the enemy's primary tools in the war of narratives. What is certain is that producing and spreading such news, as part of cognitive warfare, has been among the most important instruments of the hegemonic system in confronting the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Enemy Seeks to Erode Social Capital
Narges Shokrzadeh, a writer and seminary researcher, believes one of the enemy's main objectives in producing and spreading fake news and fueling rumors is to weaken social capital and public trust: "The primary goal here is to create division and a rift between the government and the nation. By spreading fake news, the enemy seeks to destroy people's beliefs in the system's effectiveness, the integrity of officials, and the country's achievements — so that social despair replaces hope."
She noted another objective: "Fake news is not only aimed at the public. Sometimes the enemy wants to create a toxic atmosphere that makes officials hesitant, conservative, or passive in their decision-making. When officials and managers are caught up in distractions and responding to lies, they lose focus on solving the country's major problems."
Stripping Society of Psychological Security
Shokrzadeh noted: "Another goal of those producing and spreading fake news is the continuous effort to strip away calm and psychological security — by instilling a sense of insecurity, instability, and chaos, keeping society in a state of constant stress. This makes people imagine the country is on the verge of collapse, leading them to change their rational, long-term economic and social behavior — signs of which we see in surges to buy dollars or gold."
The Importance of the First Narrative
She said: "In the war of narratives, whoever provides the first account of an event or issue is often the victor. Therefore, I believe the propaganda apparatus and media of the revolutionary current should not wait for the enemy to fabricate fake news and then deny it. It is essential to narrate the truth before the fake news and then carefully analyze the news to raise public awareness."
She stressed the importance of promoting media literacy: "Using psychological techniques, the enemy produces news that aligns with the audience's cognitive biases. Therefore, public education to identify mind-manipulation techniques — such as generalizations, selective emphasis, and the use of unnamed sources — is absolutely necessary. We must not neglect the importance of 'jihad of clarification,' which our martyred leader repeatedly emphasized, especially in the current sensitive and critical circumstances."
Society Is Not Merely a Consumer of Rumors
Farhad Khademi, a university professor and journalist, said society is not merely a consumer of rumors: "Whether we like it or not, part of society seeks a denial to learn the truth. However, a denial cannot always fully compensate for the damage caused by fake news."
He added: "False news may trigger a social, economic, or psychological reaction in the first few hours and then be denied — but its initial effect does not necessarily disappear with the denial. This is where the responsibility of official media becomes doubly important."
Official Media's Role in Information Dissemination
Khademi said: "If official media is late in reporting, or publishes important news in complex language, or if sources are unclear, or if the audience feels they must wait through multiple stages of confirmation to understand an issue — an information vacuum is naturally created. That vacuum will sooner or later be filled by another narrative."
He noted: "We should not place all responsibility on a single platform or its users. Fake news is a multi-layered issue: content producers, dissemination platforms, algorithms, official media, response methods, audience media literacy, and even the political and social conditions of society — all play a role."
The War of Narratives and the Demands of the Times
Khademi said: "The reality is that today's war is not only over land and borders — it is also a war over narratives. Whoever cements their narrative of an event in society's mind first does not necessarily possess the truth, but can influence public perception of it. For this reason, confronting fake news is not possible through denial alone. Denial must be fast, transparent, documented, and understandable. The audience must know what was false, what the reality is, what the correct source of information is, and why the initial claim was identified as false."
Report by Seyyed Mohammad Mahdi Mousavi
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