Iran Moves To Provide ‘Unrestricted Internet’ For ‘Digital Freelancers’

Based on the report, elements of the Islamic Republic living in Canada have threatened Iranians, monitored them, and even chased them to their homes after demonstrations in Canadian cities.

The activists told CBC they have had no help from Canadian police or government officials and do not feel like the threat is being taken seriously.

The report also added that the agents of the Islamic Republic have threatened Iranian Canadians through calls and text messages to cell phone numbers that were supposed to be private.

The messages warned them to stop posting on social media and speaking out about Iran.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had earlier acknowledged that they are monitoring the situation, announcing for the first-time last Friday they are investigating “several threats to life emanating from the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

CBC said last Friday that Canadian Security Intelligence Service was aware that some state agents of the Islamic Republic are “monitoring and intimidating” people inside Canada to silence those who speak against the regime.

Since popular protests started against Iran’s clerical regime, activists and Iranians living in Canada have held large gatherings and demonstrations in Canadian cities in solidarity with the protesters inside the country.

Meanwhile, many activists are preparing various lists of people affiliated with the Islamic Republic and living in Canada to present to the authorities.

The story was first reported by movie director Vahid Vakilifar and Mohammad Reza Shafiei, a producer linked to the Islamic Republic’s inner circles, who criticized the filmmakers, saying that “the enemy's hybrid warfare” has clouded their understanding and judgement of the current developments. 

According to these reports, filmmakers are shooting the same scenes both with hijab and without, leaving the impression that they think the Islamic Republic’s mandatory dress code may be relaxed in future.

Later on, people on social media said that not only the movies are being filmed both with and without hijab, some series for home streaming services are also being shot both ways.

An official with the Islamic Republic’s Cinema Organization, a body that works under the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, denied the reports on November 23, and threatened if the news is true, the production of the films will be stopped at any stage. Bahman Habashi warned of “irreparable consequences for the creators.” He also called on investors, producers and directors to be careful about the consequences of any violation of the country's official laws on their reputation, credit and capital. 

It is not yet clear who are the filmmakers who are purportedly making such movies or how they are funded or whether the movies are being produced for screening inside the country. 

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Kianoush Ayari’s movie "Couch," in which the actresses do not have headscarves, but instead wear wigs, is still banned, or another movie “The Killer and the Savage” by Hamid Nematollah, in which the main character is a woman with a shaved head has not given permission for screening.

Although producing movies or shows in two version seems costly and arduous, there are some very famous examples for it, such as The Message, a 1976 epic flick by Syrian-American Moustapha Akkad that chronicles the life of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Having consulted with Islamic clerics in a thorough attempt to be respectful towards Islam, Akkad simultaneously filmed two versions of the drama - one with an international cast in English and one an Arabic version with an Arab cast.

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However, there are some people on social media who believe these rumors were created by regime insiders to justify the crackdown on filmmakers. This may be true because there are a few government-backed companies which want to control all film and TV series production and distribution. They have an interest in banning films or arresting independent filmmakers. 

In recent weeks, a large number of actresses and female filmmakers as well as sports celebrities have posted photos of themselves without the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab as a show of solidarity with antigovernment protests, ignited by the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in custody of the country’s hijab – or the so-called morality – police. 

Such acts of defiance by actresses have become extremely troubling for the Islamic Republic’s state broadcaster that has to remove them from TV series and movies they had appeared in or stop airing the shows altogether. 

The regime has also arrested several of the celebrities who have unveiled in public and has threatened many with bans on their works and leaving the country. However, such measures seem futile as the list of people who are getting banned are increasing day by day. Even if the production of movies with a veiled and unveiled cast is only a rumor, it shows that many people are imagining the country’s cinematic landscape free of the Islamic Republic. 

In an interview with CNN International, Federico Villegas of Argentina said Friday that the newly created fact-finding mission to investigate alleged human rights violations in Iran “can make a difference,” and expressed hope that Iran will cooperate.

During the special session on Iran Thursday, the President of the Human Rights Council had noted that it is a multilateral and democratic body where differences of opinion are legitimate, raising hope that the Islamic Republic would cooperate to carry out the mission.

“I think that at one moment or another they will realize that the Iranians across the world are asking for change and their demands for change are directly linked to human rights because they would like to see a different situation in their country in relation to human rights,” Villegas told CNN’s anchor Becky Anderson.

He went on to say that the UN Human Rights Council for the first time established a special team to run an independent investigation into the violations that are being committed on a daily basis in Iran.

The UN Human Rights Council voted Thursday to launch an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests, that has killed over 450 civilians.

The motion passed with 25 votes in favor, six opposed and 16 countries abstaining amid cheers of activists amid an intensifying crackdown in Kurdish areas of western Iran over recent days.

In a letter issued on Friday, a group of about 140 ophthalmologists said that a large number of protesters have been taken to medical centers hit by rubber bullets and metal pellets as well as paintball bullets in their eyes, leading to the loss of eyesight in one or both eyes. 

Last week, another group of 230 ophthalmologists issued a similar letter warning about the loss of eyesight among protesters. 

The Islamic Republic, which had been previously condemned for blinding protesters in the streets and has intensified the use of guns, including military weapons against unarmed protesters. 

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In an article on November 19, The New York Times cited ophthalmologists of three hospitals in the capital Tehran – namely Farabi, Rasoul Akram and Labbafinezhad -- and several doctors in Kordestan province, as saying that about 580 protesters suffered serious eye injuries during the regime’s crackdown. 

The full scope of mass eye injuries has been largely concealed due to the internet blackout, but medical evidence given to The Times by doctors, protesters, family members of patients and rights groups revealed that ophthalmology wards in hospitals have been overwhelmed with eye injury victims. The range of injuries included mutilated retinas, severed optic nerves and punctured irises.

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The regime’s security forces have been extensively using cartridges of shotshell loaded with numerous small balls or birdshots, or medium-sized buckshots as well as single large solid projectiles known as a slug to quash the protests across the country. 

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In an investigative report published on Friday, FRANCE 24 found evidence that shotgun cartridges manufactured by French-Italian manufacturer Cheddite have been widely used against Iranian protesters, an apparent violation of EU sanctions that went into place in 2012. 

The team analyzed more than 100 photos and videos showing teargas canisters, rifle bullets, paintball projectiles and cartridges from shotguns. While most of the shotgun shells photographed were made in Iran, 13 shells recovered from eight different Iranian cities bore Cheddite logos from factories in Italy and France. The company claims to be the world’s largest maker of empty shotgun cartridges and firing caps, producing more than a billion empty cartridges every year.

Nicholas Marsh, a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), told FRANCE 24 about Iran that "The regulation currently in force states that it is not allowed to sell shotguns of any type, ammunition designed for them and associated components. The restriction on firearms was added in an amendment on 24 March 2012. Since then, shotguns and their ammunition have been covered by the EU sanctions, and the sanctions are still in effect." The agency also quoted Amnesty International's researcher on arms control and human rights, Patrick Wilcken, as saying that “Cheddite has a responsibility to respect human rights; it should carry out human rights due diligence on its entire value chain and should cease supplies if there is a risk of goods being diverted into hands of serial human rights violators…” 

Alleged security camera footage leaked by hackers who targeted the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency shows one of its employees in a compromising situation at work.

The group hacked the twitter account of Habib Torkashvand, one of the news agency’s managers and published the video on his account, captioning, “These are the freeloaders of Fars! At the beginning of every week, after coming to the office, they must check who has been at their desk the day before and jerked off!”

The agency has denied that the footage belongs to Fars News, however some users on Twitter have identified the person as one of the economic editors of the website.

The video shows the journo locking the door and then taking off his pants before playing a video to watch and masturbate.

His smoking and having potato chips while enjoying himself has become a fun topic for Iranian users on social media.

Since its creation, hardline Fars News has played a key role in promoting IRGC propaganda and waging psychological warfare against regime opponents.

The hacktivist group Black Reward announced on Friday [Nov. 25] that it had attacked the database of Fars News Agency claiming that it has deleted nearly 250 terabytes of data from all the servers and computers of the website.

Black Reward also said it has obtained the confidential bulletins and directives sent by the news agency to the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Based on the group’s statement, the hacked data includes all recorded calls, information on internal portals related to administrative conversations and news folders, image archives and financial documents of this news agency.

However, Fars says during the recent attack, hackers were only able to destroy the information and news from Friday, and other information and databases of the news agency were not hacked.

Various groups of anonymous hackers have targeted Iran’s government entities in recent years, publishing some confidential information or disrupting the state television’s programs and playing their own messages.

Back in October, Black Reward published a throve of documents from Iran’s nuclear program, after a 24-hour deadline it had given the government expired.

The group said it had hacked the email system of Iran’s Nuclear Power Production and Development company threatening that it will release the documents if the government did not stop its clampdown on protesters. It also said that a total of 50 GB data was obtained.

In the past weeks, Black Reward also hacked the e-mails of managers and employees of Press TV state channel, obtaining their personal information.

The hacker group, which says it is “part of the Iranian hacker community” and works “to confront the criminal clerical regime,” asked Press TV journalists to “be the voice of the people.”

Press TV claims it is the “voice of the voiceless” but it has recently been sanctioned by the European Union for “human rights violations.”

Black Reward had also hacked the emails of the employees of Al-Zahra University in Tehran and the Legal Medicine Organization of the country asking them to support the protesters.

After the start of anti-regime protests in mid-September, Black Reward, together with the hacker group called Tepandegan, sent millions of texts inviting people to participate in protest rallies.