Iranians turned to social media to voice their opposition to the death sentences passed on three men who participated in mass protests last year.
The “unprecedented” unit saw the hashtag “Do not run” in Persian spearheading Twitter trends in Iran for more than 24 hours, Trendsmap data showed on Wednesday, after hitting 4.5 million retweets across the globe. world the day before.
The virtual campaign, which also generated thousands of posts on Instagram and Telegram, came after Justice Ministry spokesman Gholam-Hussein Ismaili said Tuesday that the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for Amirhossein Moradi, 25 years old, Mohammad Rajabi, 25, and Saeed Tamjidi, 27)
The three men were arrested on charges of “enmity against God” through acts of arson and vandalism during the wave of protests that rocked the country in November 2019 after a sudden rise in fuel prices.
“I am next, you are next, we are next, we do something” and “Iranians live the stuff too,” read some of the widely shared online posts.
“I have never seen anything on this scale,” said UK-based digital researcher Amin Sabeti. “It is one of the rare moments in my Persian webphere to see people on Instagram and Twitter gathered together talking about a cause, especially a political argument.”
Human rights groups suggested that the virtual protest against the Supreme Court ruling was “unprecedented” given how infrequently Iranians take political or social discourse to social media, and how wide was the range of people who joined the campaign, from politicians to pop singers to fashion trendsetters.
“[When] “We do not recognize the right to peaceful and legal protest, the ground is provided for violent protest,” former Member of Parliament Mahmud Sadeghi wrote on Twitter.
“Don’t make people more bitter at this sad time,” Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi said on Instagram, followed by other cultural icons like rapper Hickhas.
After China, Iran is the world’s leading executioner who served 251 death sentences last year, according to Amnesty International.
The human rights group warned on Wednesday of “an alarming escalation in the use of the death penalty against protesters, dissidents and minority groups in Iran.”
A few hours before the court decision, two Kurdish men were executed in Urumieh prison in the province of West Azerbaijan, while a journalist. Rouhollah Zam was sentenced to death in June.
As posts flooded social media, reports of the internet slowdown began to emerge.
“The significant disruption of multiple networks in #Iran at 9:30 pm local time significantly impacted citizens’ communication skills – an ongoing incident,” NetBlocks.org, an internet monitoring group, tweeted.
Confirmed: Significant outage on multiple networks in #Iran after 5 pm UTC (9:30 pm local time); Network data in real time shows a significant impact on subscribers’ Internet lines that limit the communication capacity of citizens; ongoing incident 📉 pic.twitter.com/XZ1rNXgRHB
– NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) July 14, 2020
Authorities have routinely slowed down on the Internet when faced with internal dissent. When people protested against the rising cost of gasoline in 2019, the Supreme National Security Council imposed a full one-week shutdown.
‘A new age’
Tuesday’s digital rally marks a “new era” for Iranians to use social media to take political action and protest in a “less risky manner” as public discontent has met with police brutality in the past or other forms of repression, according to Sabeti.
During the protests last November, Amnesty estimated that at least 304 unarmed protesters were killed by the security forces. Iranian authorities denied that figure and said 203 people lost their lives.
“This is clearly a message to spread fear and prevent further protests in the country,” said Raha Bahreini, Amnesty researcher on Iran.
The Iranians have been frustrated under the weight of the crippling sanctions imposed by the United States following their departure in 2018 from a landmark nuclear deal signed with world powers.
Since retirement, the local currency has lost 70 percent of its value, hitting a record low this week. Today, a US dollar is offered for 236,000 riyals, while a month ago it could be purchased for about 180,000, according to Bombast.com.
“They know that public outrage has reached a boiling point, so they use the death penalty as a tool for political repression,” said Bahreini.
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