The popular video platform YouTube has kept airing material from people and firms hit by US Treasury sanctions for aiding or joining activities tied to the Islamic regime, according to a fresh analysis by the Tech Transparency Project issued last week.

TTP, a research effort run by the nonprofit Campaign for Accountability, spotted many sanctioned figures still active on YouTube. These include Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Assembly of Experts cleric Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri.

Other cases cover Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman barred for helping the IRGC dodge sanctions through money laundering; an Iranian special forces unit accused of deadly force against unarmed protesters; Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader who threatened US forces and faced sanctions in 2019 for oil deals with the Assad regime plus a role in the 1994 antisemitic attack in Buenos Aires; Naji Sharifi Zindashti, an official sanctioned in 2024 for targeting regime opponents abroad via kidnapping and assassination plots; and several official or semi-official Iranian state media outlets, including the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, under US sanctions for over ten years.

Zanjani runs several YouTube channels, TTP noted, including two tied to his holding firm DotOne. Under OFAC’s 50 percent rule, any firm owned or controlled at least 50 percent by a sanctioned person also falls under sanctions.

The report found many accounts linked to sanctioned individuals and groups

Nobitex, Iran’s biggest digital asset exchange, sanctioned on June 2 for easing payments linked to Iran’s terrorist acts, sanctions evasion, and IRGC deals, also runs a YouTube channel, along with Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex.

TTP further found that Surabaya Hobby CV, an Indonesian firm sanctioned for supplying Iran with drone parts, has kept a channel since October 2024 even though OFAC acted against it in December 2023. In one instance, an ad appeared on the channel for Iran’s Cultural Heritage Ministry, urging applications for jobs with US Customs and Border Protection.

While it remains unclear if the channels earned money from uploads, TTP warned that YouTube may have broken US sanctions rules by letting the channels stay. By permitting ads on those channels, YouTube has likely gained from their presence as well.

“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 reached out to YouTube’s parent company Google for comment.

Google has not yet replied to The Post, but spokesperson Nate Funkhouser told Wired that Google follows applicable sanctions and trade rules and acts on accounts that break its policies.

Within hours of the TTP report, 63 channels were taken down.