IRAN/OBAMA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Seven years ago, the Obama administration launched a ‘virtual U.S. embassy’ for Iran, a friendly, engaging online portal that gave Iranians a window on American democracy and information about cultural exchanges. These days, the website sends a different message. Instead of being packed with soft profiles of Iranian-Americans and presidential greetings on Muslim holidays, it touts the latest U.S. sanctions on Iran, features speeches deriding Iran’s leaders and profiles Americans detained in Iran. A window pops up quoting President Donald Trump: ‘The Iranian regime’s longest-suffering victims are its own people.’ The virtual embassy’s change in tone is just one example of how, in lieu of a traditional war with Tehran, the Trump administration has launched an information war instead. Over the past year, the Republican administration has repurposed and deployed various tools of communication — from social media hashtags to presidential speeches — to hammer Iran’s Islamist leaders and fan the Iranian people’s grievances against their government.”
–Nahal Toosi, “Memes, hashtags and ‘hypocritical holy men’: Trump’s information war on Iran,” Politico, November 5, 2018 7:08 am