Adversary Intelligence — 2026-09-16

Iran Launches Alaj Platform Asking Citizens to Identify and Report Opposition Members Abroad

BLUFIran's Alaj platform is very unlikely to yield a formal citizenship revocation by year-end 2026, serving instead as a crowdsourced intimidation mechanism designed to chill diaspora dissent.

Iran-linked Guards-affiliated Fars News Agency announced on Monday the launch of "Alaj" (also rendered "Elaj"), a platform inviting citizens to identify and report Iranians abroad deemed opponents of the state 1. State television promoted the project, which accepts submissions through a website, Telegram bot and Bale messenger app 12. Iranian state media said Alaj has identified and monitored 1,600 people, including roughly 600 flagged through public reports, and its website has published names, photographs and, in some cases, national ID numbers, birth dates and fathers' names for several individuals 1IranWire" data-url="https://iranwire.com/en/news/157630-elaj-irans-new-platform-encouraging-citizens-to-spy-on-one-another/" data-rt="primary" data-otype="digital_news">3. State TV said those labeled "traitors" could face revoked citizenship and cutoffs of financial, media and consular access 2. IranWire reported the identity of the entity operating Alaj and the source of the personal data it has published remain undisclosed 3. President Masoud Pezeshkian, in separate remarks Monday, said some Iranians abroad "aligning themselves with the enemy" seek to incite unrest inside the country 1.

Analysis
Alaj extends Iran's crowdsourced-informant model, already deployed domestically against protesters and citizen journalists, to the diaspora, turning the security services' surveillance gap abroad into a distributed data-collection tool that weaponizes published personal data as intimidation. Iran will very unlikely carry out a formal citizenship revocation against an Alaj-identified individual by year-end 2026: the platform's undisclosed operator, unverified claims, and absent legal framework point toward performative deterrence rather than an operational enforcement pipeline. The campaign may instead function primarily as domestic messaging signaling vigilance rather than genuine enforcement capacity. Confidence is low, given reliance on Guards-linked Fars News's own announcement alongside IranWire's independent corroboration, with the data's origin and custodian still unresolved. Absent a shift from publication to actual revocations, agencies can treat Alaj as an intimidation campaign warranting monitoring rather than emergency protective measures for named individuals.

5 sources

Islamic Republic asks public to identify opponents abroad - Shabtab News
Iran begins new push to 'identify and punish traitors' living abroad - The National
"Elaj": Iran's New Platform Encouraging Citizens to Spy on One Another - IranWire
Iran launches Alaj platform for citizens to report foreign-based dissenters - Cryptobriefing
⁨انتشار فهرستی از وطن‌فروشان خارج‌نشین توسط گروه علاج ("Alaj" Group Publishes List of Expatriate 'Traitors')⁩ - Fars News Agency (semi-official, IRGC-aligned Iranian state media)