An investigation in the United States found that broadcasters controlled by U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah’s Al-Manar, were distributed on 17 of 25 illicit streaming services tested, according to a joint report from the Digital Citizens Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focused on internet safety, and risk3sixty, a cybersecurity firm headquartered in the Atlanta area. The services were accessible over U.S. internet connections and bundled the channels alongside movies and live sports.
The report, released Sept. 10, 2026, is titled Hostile Signals: How Illicit Piracy Platforms Give Terrorist-Controlled and Sanctioned Foreign Broadcasters Access to American Homes.
What the investigation found#
Researchers examined 25 piracy platforms and found broadcasters affiliated with designated terrorist organizations or sanctioned foreign states on 17 of them. The organizations named in the report are:
- Hezbollah
- Hamas
- The Houthis
- Kata’ib Hezbollah
These groups are collectively responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, the report states. Al-Manar, Hezbollah’s official broadcaster, was the most prevalent, appearing on all 17 services that carried such programming.
The U.S. State Department placed Al-Manar on its Terrorist Exclusion List in 2004, and the U.S. Treasury Department designated it a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity in March 2006.
Access to American households#
The investigation documents how piracy platforms provide organizations associated with terrorist groups or other U.S. adversaries a commercial distribution system that operates outside U.S. law. That system grants them access to paying American subscribers who did not seek out the content.
The report cites a March 2026 U.S. intelligence community assessment that Islamist terrorist groups have shifted toward information operations intended to spread propaganda and to inspire “lone wolf” attacks by individuals with access to the West.
“Piracy platforms give terrorist organizations a back door to access the U.S. market, circumventing two decades of efforts to keep these organizations from being able to broadcast into American homes,” said Tom Galvin, Executive Director of the Digital Citizens Alliance.
“Our investigation found that piracy services routinely package terrorist-controlled broadcasters alongside everyday entertainment, creating a distribution channel that operates outside traditional safeguards. When extremist content is embedded in the same interface as sports, movies, and news, it becomes far less visible to those working to identify and disrupt radicalization efforts,” said Steven Guris, threat intelligence lead at risk3sixty.
Recommendations#
The report makes three recommendations to lawmakers and law enforcement to address this national security threat.
