Cyber Center Linked to IRGC Reports Arrest and Summons of Managers of 450 Social Media Pages and Channels

The Cyber Organized Crime Center, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced that "managers" of 450 pages, channels, or groups on mobile social networks have been arrested or summoned on charges such as "criminal modeling" and "insulting religious beliefs." This center reported on Tuesday, September 2, in a report on its official website, "Gerdab," that these individuals were active on messaging apps and social networks including Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The Cyber Organized Crime Center has accused these individuals of activities "in areas against moral security, the cycle of criminal modeling, and insulting religious beliefs." In its report, the center only mentioned the number of social media pages whose "managers" have been summoned and interrogated, without specifying how many were arrested and how many were summoned and interrogated. On May 26, the Cyber Organized Crime Center reported that in a project called "Spider Project 2" on social networks, especially Instagram, after "identifying" 170 individuals managing modeling pages, legal cases were formed against 29 individuals, with eight arrested and the rest summoned. The IRGC has repeatedly reported its actions against modeling pages on social networks. For instance, on June 12 and 23, the center's website announced that the IRGC had issued "serious warnings" to several photography studios that, according to the center, played a "significant role in the criminal modeling cycle." Mustafa Alizadeh, the spokesperson for this center, also claimed on May 26 that "England and some Gulf countries" are involved in the "modeling cycle" in Iran with "precise targeting." The Cyber Organized Crime Center of the IRGC had previously claimed on February 28, 2015, that it had "oversight" over "about eight million likes" on Facebook as part of a project called "Spider." In the same year, it reported the arrest of several Facebook page operators without naming them. Afterward, news websites reported that these individuals were sentenced to a total of 127 years in prison in the initial court, which was reduced to 45 years in the appeals court. A significant number of clerics and military officials in Iran believe that the internet and social networks are tools of "soft war" and "espionage" by the West against the Islamic Republic and that strict oversight should be applied to this space. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, has referred to the "virtual space" as a "real battlefield" and stated that "clergymen and seminarians must be armed and prepared to enter the arena to confront doubts and erroneous and deviant thoughts." Meanwhile, Naser Makarem Shirazi, a Shia cleric in Qom, stated on Tuesday during a meeting with the Minister of Communications and Information Technology that "yesterday, upon hearing reports from the virtual space, I cried for the situation of the youth in the country given the enemy's anti-cultural attack." According to Fars News Agency, he emphasized that Telegram, with access to information, can shape various events, adding, "Just as the enemy organized popular forces to express opposition during the 2009 unrest." Some conservatives refer to the protests against the 2009 presidential election, in which dozens were killed by security forces, as "sedition." This cleric emphasized that in the Telegram social network, "the widespread promotion of immoral anomalies, especially illicit relationships with relatives, has been highlighted." Makarem Shirazi also mentioned that "over 80% of students" have an average of 12 or less, attributing this issue primarily to social networks. Centers within the IRGC and other institutions in Iran have been established to deal with internet activists and to implement programs aimed at launching "native applications" in recent years. These actions, and even the necessity of using VPNs, have not diminished the interest of Iranian users, and a large population from within Iran is present in virtual networks. Meanwhile, Hossein Najat, the cultural deputy of the IRGC, announced on August 14 that regarding the use of virtual space, "we have been successful in engaging with the Hezbollah community but unsuccessful in confronting the gray segments of society in virtual space."