Elon Musk’s X Profit From Iranian Government Accounts May Violate US Sanctions, New Report Finds

Over the past several weeks, Elon Musk has mirrored former U.S. President Donald Trump’s public stance, harshly criticizing senior Iranian government leaders and backing the tens of thousands of demonstrators protesting the country’s ruling regime. He even went a step further, activating free Starlink satellite internet access for Iranians amid a nationwide total internet shutdown ordered by the government.

But a new investigation from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), shared exclusively with WIRED, reveals that while Musk publicly voices support for Iranian protesters, his social media company X appears to be earning revenue directly from the very Iranian government officials he has publicly condemned—an arrangement that may violate existing U.S. sanctions.

TTP researchers identified more than two dozen X accounts reportedly operated by Iranian government officials, state institutions, and state-controlled media outlets, all of which carried the platform’s signature blue checkmark, confirming they are subscribed to X’s paid Premium service. While ordinary Iranians were cut off from the global internet during the government-ordered blackout, these accounts spread state-endorsed propaganda, and their posts were algorithmically amplified to boost reach and user engagement—a core benefit of X’s paid Premium tier. A basic X Premium subscription, the only way to obtain a blue checkmark under X’s current system, costs $8 per month, while the higher-tier Premium+ plan—which removes ads and amplifies content even more—runs $40 monthly.

At a moment when the Trump administration is threatening potential military action against Iran unless the country complies with new demands over nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile development, X’s decision to amplify the Iranian government’s messaging directly undermines U.S. policy goals, the report notes.

“Elon Musk isn’t just giving these sanctioned actors a place to post—he’s taking their money to boost their content through these paid subscriptions and give them extra platform features. That means he’s actively undercutting the sanctions the U.S. and the Trump administration have imposed on the Iranian regime,” TTP director Katie Paul told WIRED.

X did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment, but within hours after WIRED flagged several of the Iranian official accounts to the company, their blue checkmarks were removed. All other accounts TTP identified that were not specifically flagged to X still retain their blue checkmarks as of this reporting.

When asked for comment, the White House directed all inquiries to the U.S. Treasury Department. A Treasury spokesperson declined to address specific allegations, but noted the department “take[s] allegations of sanctionable conduct extremely seriously.”

Background on the 2025 Iranian Protest Crackdown

Protests first erupted in Iran’s capital Tehran on December 28, sparked by the ongoing collapse of the Iranian rial against the U.S. dollar and a sweeping national economic crisis. In the days that followed, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across cities across the country, demanding regime change and an end to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 37-year rule.

In response, the regime launched a brutal crackdown on demonstrators, arresting tens of thousands and killing thousands more. The full death toll remains unconfirmed, and human rights groups warn the actual number of fatalities is far higher than official government figures report.

On January 2, Trump publicly signaled his support for protesters in a Truth Social post, promising to back their movement. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he wrote. Musk quickly echoed Trump’s criticism, calling Khamenei “delusional” in a public post.

On January 5, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, Iran’s chief justice—who held a blue checkmark on X at the time—posted on the platform, “This time, we will show no mercy to the rioters.” Ejei was among the accounts that had their blue checkmarks removed Wednesday after WIRED contacted X for this story.

A few days after that post, X changed the Iranian flag emoji displayed on the platform to the version used before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which features a lion and sun. On January 14, Musk announced that any user with a Starlink terminal in Iran would get free access to the service, no subscription required. At the time, Starlink terminals were the only reliable way to connect to the global internet after the regime imposed a near-total blackout across the country.

But even as Musk publicly signaled his opposition to the Iranian regime, dozens of official accounts tied to the government continued to spread unmoderated propaganda on X without restriction.

Sanctioned Officials Hold Paid Blue Checkmarks

One of the top sanctioned officials identified by TTP is Ali Larijani, a senior advisor to Khamenei whose X account has more than 120,000 followers. Larijani retained his blue checkmark until Wednesday, when X removed it after WIRED reached out for comment. After Trump called on Iranians to continue their protests, Larijani posted on X that Trump is one of the “main killers of the people of Iran.” Larijani was added to the U.S. sanctions list just last month, with the Treasury naming him one of the “architects of Iran’s brutal crackdown on peaceful protests.”

Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister and core member of Khamenei’s inner circle, also held a blue checkmark on his account until Wednesday. Velayati was first sanctioned by the Treasury in 2019 for providing a “lifeline” to former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime. He has also been charged with homicide by Argentine authorities over the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that killed 85 people. On December 30, Velayati referenced Trump in an X post, writing that “without the need for any kind of foreign assistance, [Iran] will continue the peaceful advancement of its nuclear industry and its legitimate defensive capabilities.”

X already has an existing system for verifying official government accounts, which issues a gray checkmark to confirmed heads of state and senior government officials. Khamenei, for example, has a gray checkmark on multiple X accounts that hold millions of followers between them. Even with this system in place, dozens of Iranian government officials have blue checkmarks on their profiles, confirming they pay for X’s Premium service.

X’s official website explains that a “blue check mark means that the account has an active subscription to X Premium and meets our eligibility requirements.” Those requirements include a verified phone number linked to the account. Before Musk purchased the platform (then called Twitter) in 2022, blue checkmarks were awarded for free to notable public figures who verified their identity. The company phased out that legacy system in 2023, and confirmed legacy verified accounts “will not retain a blue check mark unless they are subscribed to X Premium.”

Like most of the accounts TTP identified, Ejei, Larijani, and Velayati are all classified as “specially designated nationals” by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which has enforced U.S. sanctions on Iran for decades.

Sanctions Rules Raise Clear Legal Questions

There are limited exemptions to U.S. sanctions on Iran for U.S. tech companies. A 2022 general exemption allows U.S. tech firms to offer platform access to Iranians, to let ordinary citizens connect with the outside world. This exemption technically allows Iranian government officials to use these platforms too, but only if all services provided are “publicly available” and offered “at no cost.”

“It is not possible to confirm a violation occurred without knowing the specific details of the arrangement between X and each sanctioned user,” Oliver Krischik, an attorney at GKG Law who specializes in OFAC sanctions, told WIRED. “However, if X provided these ‘blue check marks’ to the Iranian government for a fee, or offered paid services to Iranian government officials that are not available to the public for free without an OFAC license, that would fall outside the existing general authorization.”

Another blue checkmarked account identified by TTP belongs to Ali Ahmadnia, communications chief for Iran’s president. Ahmadnia’s account even included a feature that let users send him bitcoin donations.

“A feature like this would not be covered by any existing informational material exemption or general license for basic communications services,” Kian Meshkat, an attorney who focuses on U.S. economic sanctions, told WIRED. “It could reasonably be considered a prohibited transaction involving blocked property of the Government of Iran, as well as a prohibited export of financial services to Iran under the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations.”

As of this publication, the donation button has been removed from Ahmadnia’s account on desktop, but it remains visible on the X mobile app.

Paul says this issue is part of a larger pattern at X, where the platform profits directly from paid subscriptions purchased by sanctioned entities and individuals. “When we look at the mass layoffs X carried out after Elon Musk took over, we don’t just see a collapse of trust and safety and content moderation—we see a breakdown in legal compliance for core requirements like U.S. sanctions enforcement,” Paul said.

This is not the first time Musk and X have been accused of violating U.S. sanctions by offering paid Premium services to prohibited individuals. In June, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the Treasury after another TTP report claimed X was giving blue checkmarks to U.S.-sanctioned terrorist groups.

“Now it looks like X may be letting sanctioned Iranian government officials make money off its platform,” Warren told WIRED. “By failing to take basic steps to enforce our sanctions, the Trump Administration continues to undermine our national security and the integrity of the financial system.”