YouTube Funnels Revenue to Sanctioned Iranian Channels

YouTube's monetization of Iranian government-linked channels reveals a critical enforcement gap between corporate advertising policies and actual sanctions compliance. The research documents how major brands—and even US government agencies—inadvertently fund IRGC-affiliated accounts through platform ads, exposing the limitations of algorithmic content moderation at scale. This case underscores the growing challenge for tech platforms to align their revenue models with geopolitical regulations in real time.