---
title: 'Alaj: the portal Iranian state media promoted for reporting ''traitors abroad'''
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/alaj-informant-portal/
description: Iranian state media announced a "remedy" platform, run by operators the record does not name, that asked citizens to send in the names of Iranians abroad…
section: Case studies
---

![Illustration: a redacted Cold War intelligence-dossier collage centred on a world map of influence operations, with the U.S. Capitol among the evidence.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-home.jpg)

[Case studies](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/)

# Alaj: the portal Iranian state media promoted for reporting 'traitors abroad'

- **When:** September 14, 2026
- **Actor:** Fars News Agency and IRIB, amplifying the unnamed operators of the Alaj platform
- **Target:** Domestic audiences asked to report relatives and neighbours abroad; diaspora critics, journalists and activists
- **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- **Confidence:** **documented** Primary documents, court records, official disclosures
- **Techniques:** [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Narrative laundering](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/narrative-laundering/)

On this page

> **Content note.** This case quotes state media labelling Iranians abroad as traitors and describes a system for informing on them. The labels are quoted as evidence of the method. They are not this archive's description of anyone.

**In one line:** Iranian state media announced a "remedy" platform, run by operators the record does not name, that asked citizens to send in the names of Iranians abroad it called traitors, promising informants secrecy and the named people penalties.

![Diagram: Fars and IRIB announce Alaj; loaded labels come first; names flow into web and messenger inboxes; penalties follow; a separate spyware operation runs in parallel](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/alaj-informant-portal-diagram.svg)

## What happened

- **14 September 2026.** Fars News Agency announces a monitoring system called *Alaj* (Persian for "remedy"). According to Fars and the introduction text summarised by dpa, its mission is to safeguard national security and the interests of the Iranian people against "anti-homeland currents, separatists, and promoters of sanctions and military attack". It says betraying Iran has a price and a legal burden, to be imposed by stripping citizenship privileges and cutting financial and media access through "intelligent and continuous monitoring". IRIB introduces it the same way.
- **The inboxes.** Citizens are asked to submit identities at alajgroup.ir, on the domestic messenger Bale, and at @AlajGroup4 on Telegram. Informant identities are promised to stay confidential and encrypted.
- **Same week.** President Masoud Pezeshkian tells a Tehran meeting that America is trying to create divisions and that Iran will not bow if cohesion holds. Separate wire reports quote him saying some Iranians abroad, aligning themselves with the enemy, seek to incite the public.
- **15 September.** The UK NCSC, the FBI and the Dutch AIVD publish a joint advisory on CHOSEN BRICK, spyware used by Iranian state cyber actors since at least 2025 against people in the UK, US and Netherlands. Personal details of some victims have appeared on pro-Iranian leak sites.
- **16 September.** IranWire describes subject-code dossiers listing residence, occupation, social accounts and relatives, and notes an Alaj_Group channel circulating since at least April 2026. The operators' own figures claim about 1,600 files, some 600 of them from public reports. Zoomit reports the site went offline a day after launch.

![Masoud Pezeshkian, 2025](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/pezeshkian-2025.jpg)

*President Masoud Pezeshkian, 2025. Photo from khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0. Included because his same-week remarks about Iranians abroad are part of the record, not to suggest he runs Alaj. The record does not show who operates it.*

## How it works

- [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/): "traitor", "anti-homeland" and "separatist" arrive before any named act or charge. The label does the work a charge sheet would.
- [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/): complex harms (sanctions, war damage, protest, social strain) are placed on a bounded out-group: Iranians abroad labelled anti-homeland, separatist or pro-sanctions.
- [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/): once reporting is framed as protecting the people, asking how the portal works sounds like a question about the asker's loyalty.
- [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/): the penalties sit next to the label: citizenship privileges removed, money and media cut off. Separately, the CHOSEN BRICK spyware operation, not shown to be linked to Alaj, is linked to victims' personal details appearing on pro-Iranian leak sites.
- [Narrative laundering](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/narrative-laundering/): "remedy", "monitoring" and the promise of encrypted, confidential reporting give an informant portal the look of a public-service desk.

## Then and now

![This Is the Enemy (1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/this-is-the-enemy-1943.jpg)

*[This Is the Enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/this-is-the-enemy-1943/), U.S. government, 1943. Public domain.*

The U.S. wartime series *This Is the Enemy* reduced whole states and populations to one bounded villain under a flat label. Alaj applies the same device to a country's own emigrants: a single category, "traitors abroad", stands in for many different people and acts. The 1943 poster asked viewers to fear an enemy; the 2026 portal also asks them to inform on one.

![Fars News Agency homepage, January 2024](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/fars-news-homepage-2024.png)

*Fars News Agency's homepage, January 2024: the outlet that announced Alaj. Screenshot © Fars News Agency, CC BY 4.0, cropped to the top of the page by FRAME. This is not the Alaj announcement itself.*

## Positions on the record

- **As announced:** Alaj is presented as a national-security measure against people who promote sanctions, military attack or separatism.
- **What is documented:** the Fars announcement, the IRIB restatement, the president's same-week remarks, the inboxes, and the NCSC/FBI/AIVD advisory.
- **What is not shown:** which ministry, if any, commands or funds Alaj; whether the dossiers survived the site going offline; and any claim that every diaspora critic is a CHOSEN BRICK victim. This case makes no finding about the conduct of any individual Iranian abroad.

## Same-method test

A Western ministry that opened a "healing" portal for citizens to file traitor dossiers on emigré journalists, promised informants secrecy, and saw stolen family details published on pro-government leak sites would be scored the same way here.

## How to spot it

- Separate three things: dated public statements (records), the inboxes that collect names (real infrastructure), and the claim that being named proves betrayal (the method's payload).
- Ask which statute, which charge and which named authority stands behind a file. A label with no charge is a label.
- Be wary of unexpected files or "support" contacts. The CHOSEN BRICK lures posed as known contacts and tech support.

## Images

| Image | Source | Licence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mechanism diagram (above) | Drawn for FRAME from the brief's sourced facts (`make_diagrams.py`) | CC BY 4.0, FRAME |
| Masoud Pezeshkian (2025) | [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masoud_Pezeshkian_2025_(cropped).jpg), khamenei.ir | CC BY 4.0 |
| Fars News Agency homepage (2024) | [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ScreenShot_Of_Fars_News_Agency_2024.png), Fars News Agency | CC BY 4.0 (cropped by FRAME) |
| *This Is the Enemy* (1943) | FRAME gallery | Public domain (U.S. government work) |

### Image gaps

- **The Fars announcement of 14 September 2026 and the Alaj site or Telegram channel.** Fars publishes under CC BY 4.0, so the announcement page could be added, but farsnews.ir could not be reached from the environment used to build this page, and no copy was on Wikimedia Commons. **This gap can be filled** from a machine that can reach Fars.
- **The NCSC/FBI/AIVD CHOSEN BRICK advisory.** The FBI's version is public domain and the NCSC's is under the UK Open Government Licence, so either could be used, but neither site could be reached from this environment. **This gap can be filled.**
- **IranWire's dossier examples.** Not included: copyrighted, and they carry personal data about real people.

## Sources

- [Fars News Agency, 14 September 2026: Alaj launched](https://farsnews.ir/mohammadreza_dehghan/1789398958163734612/%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AC-%D9%86%D8%B4%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AC-%D8%B4%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D9%85%DB%8C-%D8%B4%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AF)
- [Tehran Times, 15 September 2026: Pezeshkian on U.S. efforts to sow division](https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/530027/Pezeshkian-warns-of-US-efforts-to-sow-division-calls-for-national)
- [UK NCSC, 15 September 2026: joint advisory on CHOSEN BRICK](https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/iranian-cyber-targeting-of-dissidents-activists-and-journalists)
- [FBI Iran cyber overview](https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber/cyber-threat-overview-iran)
- [Reuters, 15 September 2026](https://www.reuters.com/world/uk-us-netherlands-issue-advisory-iran-spyware-2026-09-15/)
- [IranWire, 16 September 2026](https://iranwire.com/en/features/157659-alaj-the-rise-of-crowdsourced-surveillance-platforms-in-iran/)
- [dpa, 15 September 2026](https://dpa-international.com/politics/urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:260915-930-688131/)
- [bne IntelliNews, 16 September 2026: Alaj offline a day after launch](https://www.intellinews.com/iranian-informant-platform-targeting-citizens-abroad-goes-offline-a-day-after-launch-468123/)
- Watch brief: [Fars and IRIB sold Alaj as civic healing while it crowdsourced traitor dossiers on Iranians abroad.](https://propagandaarchive.org/briefs/20260916-2000Z-alaj-diaspora-traitors/).