There definitely are larger forces at work, plenty of times I see what is pretty clearly political propoganda on the front page. Iran had a lot of success in r/worldnews [0]. I actually noticed a lot of pro-iran propoganda on Reddit when the US killed their general, the post would be pro-Iran and all the comments would be against it, mostly stopped after they shot down the plane though.

[0] https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/volunteers-found-iran...